The only draw back to the power sanding that I can see is that the vents on the sander blow the dust every where. I have beet thinking about putting vents over the aft vents in the sander. They would point to the head, which would help direct the air stream towards the collector. I took half of a white plastic 55 gallon drum and made a hood out of it. It bolts to a bracket where the safety shield would go. The bottom of the barrel is cut out to fit around the shaft of the head stock, with the tailstock end and front being open. I use a heavy clear piece of window plastic to cover the open end. This has the bowl about
75% covered by the hood. With me standing in front of the hood, there is a lot of air pulling almost all of the dust into the collector. One Way has something similar that they make. I used to use about half power and half hand sanding. As I progress in my skills, I am doing almost all power. If I start with a courser grit, say 100 grit, I will usually power sand to 150 then hand sand at 150 grit. The hand sanding leaves a different scratch pattern that the power sanding, so it makes it easier to see scratcher that haven't been sanded out. I then power sand to 320 or so, and finish at 320 or finer by hand. I like the linear scratch pattern of hand sanding rather than the circular pattern of the power sander. Beyond 600 or so grit, you can't see the scratches.
Power sanding saves time. If you want to save money on your sanding discs, cut your own. I buy 12 inch wide rolls of h & l from Klingspoor. I had three cutters made, using 1, 2, and 3 inch i.d. pipe sections about 1 1/2 inches long. I had a friend ream out the inside so the discs would be 1/8 inch over the diameter (3 1/8 inch). They need to be hardened. There is about a 45 degree bevel on the outside, and a small bevel on the inside of the cutting edge. For a punch board a piece of
1/2 inch plastic works. Punching can be done 3 ways; A small sledge hammer, and a wood block over the cutter. A larger arbor press. Or if you are lucky like me, a small table top punch press which can punch out 5 layers at a time. These are sometimes available to rent at some leather mfg. places. When punching, I put the sand side down. This might make a good club or group project. It reduces the cost of the discs to less than half.
robo hippy