Sanding the Future: A Boomer’s Review of the DSPIAE Reciprocating Sander

Let’s get one thing straight—I paid for this sander with my own money, no sponsorships, no freebies. Just my curiosity (and a bit of post-Christmas spare cash) leading me down this rabbit hole.

Recently the DSPIAE Reciprocating Sander repeatedly popped up on my socials, everywhere I went there it was. Eventually my interest was piqued. I also don’t, as a matter of course, buy anything if it is from a YouTube video or advert that keeps pestering me. In fact, if the ad does interest me and it is coming from a website, I will generally research it through completely separate google search. Now the Dspiae Sander struck me as a bit of a needless gadget fulfilling a need I didn’t have so I dismissed it.

I changed my mind after several weeks of badgering from the socials and researched it in more depth. I realised that this DSPIAE tool really is a proper reciprocating tool and comes with several different shaped sanding heads. The DSPIAE is rechargeable which means cable free, but with obvious disadvantages in respect of battery charge life and motor torque. Let's have a look then.

With a bit of spare cash wallowing about in my wallet after Christmas, 50 quid, and the Dspiae Sander on eBay at £42.97 I thought bollocks, if it is crap it will go back, if it is good, all well and good.

It was coming from China and so I was surprised that it only took a week to arrive, it was well packaged and felt quite hefty for the size of the parcel. Upon opening it I found that DSPIAE had used a very nice and stout package.

DSPIAE clearly takes presentation seriously. The packaging is snug, almost too snug, but once you pry it open, you're met with a well-designed tool case that screams ‘premium’—even before you get to the actual sander. That is to say, you get some nice illustrations of what's in the box. I did miss the instructions on the packaging but maybe more of that later.

After carefully removing the cellophane wrapping, remember this could be on a slow boat back to China if I deem it not being worthy of the “I Need It 3D Now” money. Upon opening the lid, I found it to be well laid out in a red and black box with moulded partitions for the various parts and a smoked plastic lid with magnet to securely hold it closed so deep joy was felt in this particular boomer’s world.

The sander itself has the feel of an extremely well-engineered device and looks beautiful. The attachments that make up the plastic heads are a simple push fit onto the reciprocating end and after you've chosen some self-adhesive abrasive, you're ready to go (I put mine on charge for half an hour whilst I looked it over).

The sander comes with a good selection of pre-shaped abrasives which I had only ever seen on bigger cousins that are used for DIY. They come in a range of grades from fairly coarse to fine. A bit more research and I discovered that you can with a bit of a Google search these can also be purchased separately when you start to run out. They look like wet and dry paper, but I haven’t tried that as of yet.

DSPIAE includes colour-coded stickers, presumably as a handy reference for the different grit levels once applied. That’s my best guess, anyway..

Now to the sanding heads, there are some very interesting shapes, radii, pointy, 90° and thin. I'm thinking these will be useful for getting into tight and awkward spots on a 3d print.

I gave it a little trial run on a model of the Mandalorian’s Blaster.". Hit the “On” button and it will start up, stab at it again it runs a little quicker, a third time and it runs a little quicker. What took me a while to get to grips with was turning the damn thing “OFF”, it transpires that after 3 seconds of running one press of the button achieves this and not the continual pressing whilst shouting “Off you fecker, Off”. But then the reading of the destructions would have helped, but these are hidden on the internal box, which I missed in my excitement to open everything up.

The motor feels slightly lacking in torque—press too hard, and it will quickly slow down, I found that the Dspiae is equipped with a cut out to avoid overheating and burning out the motor. But then it’s not mains powered. The big test was on how long it runs on a charge. As I mentioned earlier, I put it on charge straight out of the box to get it closer to max charge. 20 minutes later I found out, it will run in the region of 30 – 40 minutes. Not bad for this little tool. In fact, there is a little LED that turns green from red when charged. Also, if you feel the need of some disco lights then the handle has a long LED bar that changes colour, necessary? “No.” Does it help with the task at hand “No.”

To hold the sander? I felt it was about the same size as a chunky pen my granddaughter likes at the mo. The weight is nicely balanced and feels solid in your hand. It handles very nicely but the grade of the grit on the paper won’t grind through to the other side of the world but when I thought about it, I would sand any models that need that level of work with one of the many Mini Shaped Sanding Tools that you find to be ubiquitous on Thangs, Printables and alike. I would deploy the Dspiae Sander like Thunder Bird 4 from the pod dropped off by Thunder 2 on a rescue mission. This has its place and that most certainly isn’t the lounge wall before painting, it is for the fine detail, the around little delicate parts, no not there, there!

The Dspiae Sander will get in all the little nooks and crannies that others can’t, in my case the inside of the trigger guard, around the firing hammer the small, detailed parts that could be damaged by larger alternatives.

In conclusion, would I recommend buying one? If you are a model maker and have the need and the money I would most certainly say “Oh YES” with a capital “F”.

Marks out of 10

Quality and Design - 9 out of 10

Performance – Just remember exactly what it is to be used for, gentle sanding. 8 out of 10

Value for Money 9 out of 10

User Experience 9 out of 10

The DSPIAE Reciprocating Sander is available for purchase in the UK through several retailers:

• Scale Model Shop: Offers the sander for £37.99.

scalemodelshop.co.uk

• OEShop: Lists the sander at £39.99.

oeshop.co.uk

• Amazon UK: Available for purchase; pricing may vary.

amazon.co.uk

• eBay UK: Various listings are available; prices and availability may vary.

ebay.co.uk

• Hobby Workshop: Offers the sander; pricing details may vary.

hobbyworkshop.co.uk

• The Model Workshop: Provides the sander; pricing details may vary.

themodelworkshop.co.uk

• Scale Model Shed: Offers the sander; pricing details may vary.

scalemodelshed.co.uk

• Firestorm Games: Lists the sander at £37.99.

firestormgames.co.uk

Please note that prices and availability are subject to change. It's advisable to check the retailer's website for the most current information.

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