George, thanks for sharing this. Ben Meadows and FS used to be competitors. I'm glad at least one is still going. I just tossed my old hardcopy catalogs from them the other day. Around 2006 we started noticing that the face of Suuntos was getting cracked frequently. They had changed to some different plastic fabrication. It's possible that the earlier ones had a domed lens where the newer ones were flat. Many cavers started gluing a thin sheet of transparent polycarbonate over the lens, still admitting light of course. Another solution was to always keep it in the pouch and add a thin piece or Micarta or FR4 circuit board material 0.03 or 0.06 thick in the pouch on the face side.
The Nat Park at Carlsbad was slow at adopting this approach and those of us who broke our share of government Suuntos were intimately familiar with the problem. We carried them in small Otter boxes but it was inevitable that someone would be shooting a station in a crawl and accidentally crawl to the next shot with it hanging from neck, to then find that unmistakeable wet spot on their shirt with that oily fluid. It wasn't abnormal to have one leaking out of 4 that we took underground on camp trips, so extras were brought along. I think the CRO had a regular annual budget item repairing them. On one trip we took a CRO staffer on the second trip up to OZ in Lechuguilla Cave. Between three of us we had several Suuntos, despite my suggestion that we bring extras. I think we managed to kill one, leaking fluid, tried duct tape, hold it only face up, etc. We managed to survey with a bubble and that finally changed the reluctance to install plastic guards on the Park's inventory. Disto X2's also benefit from having a thin plastic sheet over the display, as it can be cracked if pressed face against a rock, to ruin a $500 instrument. I modified mine and the collection belonging to the Fort Stanton Cave Study Project. John On Jan 30, 2022, 10:52 AM, at 10:52 AM, George Veni <gv...@nckri.org> wrote: >While many cavers are now using DistoX2s for surveying, many of us >still have and use Suuntos. I was on trip yesterday and found the face >of my Suunto compass had cracked, creating a large bubble inside the >instrument that makes it hard to use accurately. Years ago, I'd send my >Suuntos off to the Ben Meadow Company for repair. I hadn't heard of >anyone doing that recently, so I looked into it and am posting this >note in case anyone finds it helpful. > >Ben Meadows is now part of Forestry Suppliers. And they do repair >Suunto compasses and clinometers (among other things) for about $100 >less than buying a new one. For more information, go to >https://www.forestry-suppliers.com/RepairList.php. > >George > >******************** >George Veni, PhD >Executive Director, National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI) >and >President, International Union of Speleology (UIS) > >NCKRI address (primary) >400-1 Cascades Avenue >Carlsbad, New Mexico 88220 USA >Office: +575-887-5517 >Mobile: +210-863-5919 >Fax: +575-887-5523 >gv...@nckri.org<mailto:gv...@nckri.org> >www.nckri.org<http://www.nckri.org/> > >UIS address >Titov trg 2 >Postojna, 6230 Slovenia >www.uis-speleo.org<http://www.uis-speleo.org/> >www.iyck2021.org<http://www.iyck2021.org/> > >-- >You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >Groups "Southwestern Cavers of the National Speleological Society" >group. >To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >an email to swrcavers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >To view this discussion on the web visit >https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/swrcavers/CO6PR06MB7604B8A85EEAB66D778F7D3AA0249%40CO6PR06MB7604.namprd06.prod.outlook.com.
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