rpm for sanding

I just sand at whatever speed I turned at.

is yours a variable speed lathe with electronic control

mine is not and so instead of fiddling with the belt i just left it

i might slow it if i had electronic control only because one thing i did notice was that it was harder to see the material then when i sanded at lower rpms

High speed sanding can generate heat with causes the sand-paper to break down.

I usually power sand, since I can free-wheel the lathe I just leave it "off" and let the sander spin the object

Ralph E Lindberg wrote in news:571315e3$0$3770$b1db1813 $ snipped-for-privacy@news.astraweb.com:

What are you using to do the power sanding? Some kind of flapper?

Puckdropper

Discs on a right-angle drill

indeed and with some of the paper that has the gooey backing it melts and can stick to the skin

the burn that keeps on giving

i have a piece of suede i keep in the sandpaper box leather does not transfer heat well

never thought of doing that

I've also seen the heat cause checks (cracks) in the wood. Slower is better.

I like to power sand with the 2" disk in my drill. Doing so, and varying the speed helps create a random pattern, sort of like a random orbit sander. So moderate lathe speed, and moderate sander speed is what I usually shoot for...

...Kevin

not sure i have ever seen that but it makes sense if you have moisture of any kind it will expand

what grit do you use sounds like it would remove a lot of material quickly

does the disk have a soft backing because i would gouge my work with the disk edge i think if it was rigid

Food for thought. Your comments would be just a little less coherent if you left the spaces out between the words.