Dspiae reciprocating sander review:
Had my first proper use of this sander today, so here's my thoughts....
Its not cheap, at £37 ish, got this one from our very own SMS, cheers.
But its a gadget, and you can never have too many gadgets/tools, right?
It comes in a lovely hard plastic case with flip up lid.
The sander has interchangeable heads (x8), some are small, some are larger, some are pointed, some are rounded, so you get a good selection.
I can see that it will be very useful for many small parts.
It also comes with two sets of sanding papers, which I thought was very good. Each set has one sheet of each grit (180,280,400, 600, 800, 1000) and each sheet has about a 12-16 of the smaller sanding pads, for each shape sanding head, all pre cut and with adhesive backing. So you literally have a fair few hundred pads to start with!
The heads simply snap on/off the sander, much like an electric toothbrush, and indeed I would think the insides of this sander are also very much like the mechanism of an electric toothbrush.
It is powered by a built in Li-Ion battery, charged via any usb connection, eg: mains, laptop, power-bank, etc. I have a laptop near my model space, so I will use that to charge the sander, although it came pre charged and has not yet run out of power yet.
When its charging the sander has a large green light that illuminates, not sure if this will be red when its low or needs charging?
Also note that the sander does not operate whilst its being charged, so you have to disconnect the usb lead for it to work.
It has three speeds, selected by the power button on the sander. It also appears to have a sensor on it, so if you press too hard, it slows down and then stops, until you release the pressure, again a bit like most modern electric toothbrushes.
The build quality seems to be good, it feels solid in the hand, a nice weight, not too heavy but not too light, its also a nice size, not too large/bulky.
So how does it sand? well its reciprocating, so the head is moved in and out very fast, the total movement is about 2-3mm I think.
I got a couple of bits from my next build (1:76 Airfix DUKw amphibious vehicle) snipped a couple of parts off the sprue and hence found a couple of bits that needed sanding down.
This chassis has a small dimple that needs smoothing down. Here's before (sorry, rubbish photo!)
And here's after using the sander, NB, it still looks a bit rough in the photo, but to the touch its really quite smooth.
And here's another example, the top canopy and another dimple that needs sanding....Before...
And again, here's after using the sander, and adgin it looks rough in the photo, but is actually smooth to the touch.
NB: in both the above this was initially using 280 grit, then 800 grit then finishing with 1000 grit, and both took about a minute each time, switching the heads literally takes about 3 seconds!
These were the heads after a few minutes playing around sanding both the bits above, plus a few bits of sprue, etc, so they are clearly worn, but still have more use left in them, so they look like they will last a while before needing changing.
So what do I think?
Well, prior to getting this sander, I was using old fashioned small files, those little foam sanding strips, and plain sand paper. They all have their place and uses and I'm sure I will continue to use them.
But, I can also see where I would use this sander. It will be useful for when you need to do lots of sanding, eg: cleaning up parts on/off the sprue, after snipping, after filling seams, etc, etc.
The sheer variety of heads also means you can really get into those little places that can sometimes be hard with other implements, and the variable speed option is also useful.
Overall I think its a bit expensive for what it is, I would have been happier at say, £20, maybe £25, but I think £37 is top end! But I do thinks its a useful bit of kit that will get a fair bit of use. I would rate it, hmmm, say 7.5 to 8 out of 10. (If it was cheaper I think I would have given it a 8.5 to 9).
NB: You can buy replacements heads (£5 for set of x8) and replacement sanding sheets (£3.50 per sheet with about a 100 small shaped pads on each sheet).
Had my first proper use of this sander today, so here's my thoughts....
Its not cheap, at £37 ish, got this one from our very own SMS, cheers.
But its a gadget, and you can never have too many gadgets/tools, right?
It comes in a lovely hard plastic case with flip up lid.
The sander has interchangeable heads (x8), some are small, some are larger, some are pointed, some are rounded, so you get a good selection.
I can see that it will be very useful for many small parts.
It also comes with two sets of sanding papers, which I thought was very good. Each set has one sheet of each grit (180,280,400, 600, 800, 1000) and each sheet has about a 12-16 of the smaller sanding pads, for each shape sanding head, all pre cut and with adhesive backing. So you literally have a fair few hundred pads to start with!
The heads simply snap on/off the sander, much like an electric toothbrush, and indeed I would think the insides of this sander are also very much like the mechanism of an electric toothbrush.
It is powered by a built in Li-Ion battery, charged via any usb connection, eg: mains, laptop, power-bank, etc. I have a laptop near my model space, so I will use that to charge the sander, although it came pre charged and has not yet run out of power yet.
When its charging the sander has a large green light that illuminates, not sure if this will be red when its low or needs charging?
Also note that the sander does not operate whilst its being charged, so you have to disconnect the usb lead for it to work.
It has three speeds, selected by the power button on the sander. It also appears to have a sensor on it, so if you press too hard, it slows down and then stops, until you release the pressure, again a bit like most modern electric toothbrushes.
The build quality seems to be good, it feels solid in the hand, a nice weight, not too heavy but not too light, its also a nice size, not too large/bulky.
So how does it sand? well its reciprocating, so the head is moved in and out very fast, the total movement is about 2-3mm I think.
I got a couple of bits from my next build (1:76 Airfix DUKw amphibious vehicle) snipped a couple of parts off the sprue and hence found a couple of bits that needed sanding down.
This chassis has a small dimple that needs smoothing down. Here's before (sorry, rubbish photo!)
And here's after using the sander, NB, it still looks a bit rough in the photo, but to the touch its really quite smooth.
And here's another example, the top canopy and another dimple that needs sanding....Before...
And again, here's after using the sander, and adgin it looks rough in the photo, but is actually smooth to the touch.
NB: in both the above this was initially using 280 grit, then 800 grit then finishing with 1000 grit, and both took about a minute each time, switching the heads literally takes about 3 seconds!
These were the heads after a few minutes playing around sanding both the bits above, plus a few bits of sprue, etc, so they are clearly worn, but still have more use left in them, so they look like they will last a while before needing changing.
So what do I think?
Well, prior to getting this sander, I was using old fashioned small files, those little foam sanding strips, and plain sand paper. They all have their place and uses and I'm sure I will continue to use them.
But, I can also see where I would use this sander. It will be useful for when you need to do lots of sanding, eg: cleaning up parts on/off the sprue, after snipping, after filling seams, etc, etc.
The sheer variety of heads also means you can really get into those little places that can sometimes be hard with other implements, and the variable speed option is also useful.
Overall I think its a bit expensive for what it is, I would have been happier at say, £20, maybe £25, but I think £37 is top end! But I do thinks its a useful bit of kit that will get a fair bit of use. I would rate it, hmmm, say 7.5 to 8 out of 10. (If it was cheaper I think I would have given it a 8.5 to 9).
NB: You can buy replacements heads (£5 for set of x8) and replacement sanding sheets (£3.50 per sheet with about a 100 small shaped pads on each sheet).
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