How To DIY Balance Your Brunton Compass

[@bretgreen5314]

Nice tutorial; thank you

[@karinhoferapostolidis5336]

Hi! Amazing vid! Thank you so much! I have changed hemispheres, and I have the same issue but with the Freiberger compass. Could you please explain to me how to rebalance it? I don’t know how to open it (take it apart)… is it a similar procedure to the one shown with the Brunton compass? Thank you so much in advance!

[@chronocommander007]

If you bend the needle ends up and down respectively the magnet is still tilted which may mechanically interfere with proper needle rotation. I'd add movable weights to both needle arms because that truly allows adjustable balancing. I'd also get some Rodico watchmaker's cleaning gum to pick up dust particles that may have fallen into the box before putting the glass cover back on. At least that's what I did when I worked on my Brunton transit.

[@kd5inm]

I use a larger sewing needle to pop the metal retaining ring ring out of the groove. It works so much easier. You just follow the groove around after you initially pop the end of the ring up then push the needle around under it in the groove popping the ring out of the groove. Its much easier than a screwdriver and easier on the compass.

[@techcores]

Thats not the entire story. Brunton supplies a different magnet for southern hemisphere compasses and adjusts the needle bend for the region it will be in. This only half-solves the problem and you'd better hope you don't bend it the wrong way and mess up the accuracy.