I am making a new reel design and have to produce some drawings to work from. I am not a meticulous draftsman; my drawing board is an 8.5 x 11 piece of cardboard and I draw on paper that has 5/inch squares printed on it. For many years I have used pencils with 0.5 mm lead. I have circle templates for drawing arcs of up to an inch radius, but making larger arcs has always been a problem. Available compasses are either the cheap ones that clamp a stubby wooden pencil, or a professional draftsman’s compass that holds an 0.075 inch diameter lead that you are supposed to sand to a chisel point. Both are a nuisance to maintain in a conditon that makes lines similar to those from 0.5 mm lead.

So it finally occurred to me, why not have a compass that uses 0.5 mm lead? I Googled, and there it was: the Stad Compass. I Paypal’d the $10 and quickly received it.

As you can see in the ads, it will fold up and also serve as a pencil. But since the joints are rather stiff, and it only holds one lead, I use it only in compass mode. It is a little hard to adjust, having stick-slip friction, but it does make the arc lines that I want.