Maped Helix USA Stop System Innovation Compass 3 Piece Set, Assorted Colors (196310), Red/White

Great product !! Quality and easy to use. The locking mechanism works great and stay in place once you lock it. Love the mechanical pencil attachment. The other attachment work great with pencil, pen, or marker. My son loves it and its portable case.I will get another one for my eight grader.

FINALLY a compass that locks! I have bought a number of compasses over the years for my kids and this is the first one worth keeping. This is a great compass for two reasons. First, the locking mechanism actually works, and is of quality construction (I doubt it will loosen over time). Also, it has a mechanical pencil attachment that is so much more reliable than the regular lead attachment. The only drawback to this set (and this is almost not worth mentioning) is the case. All of my kids have opted to use the mechanical pencil attachment, and the only way to store it in the case with that attachment on, is to remove the soft plastic liner inside the case. Not a big deal. It does fit, but the attachments slide around instead of being held in place. It's almost not worth mentioning since the product works so well. The mechanical pencil takes .05 lead.

This works pretty much as advertised and offers a nice array of choices for making lines in ordinary "fat" lead, mechanical pencil lead (for fine lines) or ink. My only problem with it is when I interchange the pencil parts frequently they tend to get looser and looser and even slide off occasionally. Also the cap stopping the extra mechanical pencil leads from coming out when in use, fell off constantly. I finally lost it altogether when I did not realize it had fallen off while moving some papers and drafting materials from one place to another. (It is small and gray and does not stand out if you drop it in the wrong place -- in my case I was sitting outdoors, so it blended with the dirt, rocks and grass to disappear completely!) I replaced the stopper with a pencil eraser which works much better and does not fall off, so it is still quite workable.I love the little case for keeping everything handy together, and overall, I am very pleased with my purchase. It isn't top of the line, and I am sure a professional architect would want to upgrade to something a bit higher quality and precise, but it works well for the amateur or student draftsman. I like it a lot!

This compass is as easy to use as any other good compass, I'm sure. Thought it is easier than all of them I've used. The real thing that put it over for me is the fact that it comes with a mechanical pencil. Conventional compass led is so expensive, and the compasses that use an inserted pencil are off balance due to their pencil and are hard to use. This mechanical pencil one uses inexpensive mechanical pencil lead, and is designed to be light, so the compass isn't off balance.

I have used many different compasses and this passes them all for ease of use and for non-slippage. The locking feature is brilliant in my opinion.

Came with all the pieces outlined in the description.

OK, I am a super nerd and LOVE this compass! I am encouraging my students to buy one as well for our unit on geometric constructions.

This compass is really great and very functional. The only problem I had was replacing the lead-pencil piece and never did figure it out. Unfortunately, there are no online tutorials. Would recommend.