Model 604

Love this brand. Great products that help a lot for pattern making

I teach math to children from kinder to 12th grade at LAMC, Los Angeles Math Circle, a free Sunday math school run by UCLA Math. Dept. I also give quite a few private classes based on the curriculum I have developed for the Circle. Geometry is an important part of my classes as the part of Math taught most poorly in the US schools. Compass-and-ruler constructions form the bedrock of geometry, so I teach them a lot. This way, I have an extensive experience with various compasses. Out of the compasses I have tried so far, the one under review is my favorite. It has no plastic parts - these always break down rather sooner than later. It's large and sturdy which is very important for younger children. The only reason I give it four stars are the tiny nut heads at the sides of the horizontal bar. Kids are very quick to turn them off, then off they fall, and they are very hard to find because of the tiny size. I advice parents to fix the problem with Super Glue as soon as they get the compass. Once the problem is fixed, the compass becomes a perfect instrument. I wonder why they don't just weld them in at the factory?

fit my need

Quality is meh. I was hoping for better especially for the price. However, it gets the job done. At small sizes the tips do not line up. You have to kinda push or twist it and then not put pressure on it or they misalign again.

Very nice compass and nice that it includes an extra point and leads

Quality is fine. I purchased for sculpting. Serves it's purpose.

I had a hard time getting this to hold a radius. The legs pivot out as the center wheel is too loose. Without even using it to draw, you can watch it creep open on its own. Look for a Staedtler instead. A little more, but rock solid.

This broke to become unusable within three weeks of use. Do not recommend