Maped Stop System Compass 3 Piece Set (196100)

I bought this compass for my middle school students to use in my classroom. Other compasses I have used in the past were difficult for the students to use because the compass would move while they were drawing their circles. The lock lever on this compass solved that problem. The students were able to use this without much trouble at all. I like the leads because they are thick and did not break while the students were using the compass. I would buy this product again.

This compass comes in a nice sturdy plastic case and has a great little thingy that allows you to put a thick pen or pencil in to draw with! I draw the FLower of Life and this works great for that! I love that it locks in place too! I did over an hour of research to find an affordable, yet well made compass, and this works great!

The stop system works well for me. I like the ease this tool gives for keeping an exact distance for the compass and then changing easily when a different distance is needed. This tool makes it easy to draw mandalas where same size circles are necessary.

The compass works however the "stop" or lock mechanism doesn't do anything on mine. Its the same whether the lock is up or down. I was under the impression that it would "stop" the compass from moving and "lock" it in place.

This came with one lead in the compass and one replacement lead. I do not mean one package of replacement leads; I mean one replacement lead. It needs to come with more replacement leads.

I spent $15 for a compass, and it had a defect. I ended up fixing it, but I would not recommend this product since the defect seemed like a manufacturing issue.