Sestrel compass fluid

[jwilson]

I once refilled a US-made Danforth compass with isopropyl alcohol from a university chemistry lab, and whilst the compass worked fine and the card still pointed north all the little white numbers and arrow marks were soon floating around inside the bowl like a (very expensive) snowglobe. Sent it away to a company in Southampton who put a new card in it and whatever the correct jollop was - some sort of oil. Cheaper than a new compass....

 

[pandos]

My compass was filled with oil. Which turned out to be bayol, which is used in cosmetics. I read somewhere that this was chemically and physically the same as baby oil.

I filled mine this year with baby oil. Worked out fine until it leaked from a different spot but it looked perfect and the compass moved perfectly whilst the boat bounced about....

I was unable to edit previous post.
Compass Fluid Bayol 35 (C-Fluid) LAS Aerospace Ltd.

Cost of baby oil about 10quid