Contest compass refill

[sailorbaz]

I know this subject has been posted many times before but a search failed to turn up anything. My compass has lost about 2/3 of its fluid over the winter and the card was resting at the bottom. I remembered from previous posts that the concensus was to refill with liquid paraffin. I bought 125 ml from the chemist thinking this would be enough and poured it in. Initially the original and new fluids sat in 2 layers but after a shake they mixed together. There is still an air space at the top - about 1/3 volume and the card is still sitting at a crazy angle.
Questions: Should I add more liquid paraffin? or is the compass ****ed? or should I drain it and put something else in. By the way I can't see a leak.
Any input/advice gratefully received.

 

[cliff]

Personally i would have used compass oil but it might not be readily available in the land of chocolates, chalets and numbered accounts /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif.

Having already used liquid parafin I would first slowly turn the compas over and see if you have any air trapped below the card causing it to sit at a funny angle. If air comes out from below the card and the card now sits normally I would drain and refill the compass with proper compass oil or failing that liquid parafin or clear lamp oil. Use of anything other than the correct compass oil is at your own risk.
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“Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity”
Skype id:cliffillupo

 

[VicS]

Liquid paraffin is very viscous compared with most fluids in compasses. We topped up a leaky compass in an old Sea Course auto pilot many times with medicinal liquid paraffin but it eventually became too sluggish. After a brief spell using barbeque lighting fluid, which is similar to ordinary paraffin (kerosene), I read the instruction book and discovered that the correct fluid was white spirit.

The fact that the liquid paraffin could clearly be seen as a separate layer initially indicates that it was not the correct fluid.

Too late now but you can check possible candidate fluids by oberving the way in which small samples mix. If you can see the two fluids as they mix it means they have different refractive indicies and cannot therefore be the same. The ideal vessel to do this in would be an ordinary chemistry test tube. Everybody has rack of test tubes don't they?

Your best course of action would be to determine the correct fluid. http://www.bpsc-marine.co.uk/ who is a member of this forum would probably be able to help.

There must be a leak somewhere or you would not have lost fluid and gained an air pocket but you may be able to keep on top of it by regularly topping up if is not too bad. Try keeping the compass somewhere resonably warm in the winter as frequent changes in temperature can only make matters worse

 

[MarkJohnson12345]

One of mine leaked, what a mess it was.

Bit the bullet and bought as new one.

I was so impressed I bought another to match the other bulkhead compass.

Looks good too. The Contest Comapss's seem to have come down in price, I paid £120 for the first and £85 for the second.

 

[stevebrassett]

Bought one yesterday for £ 90