Greg Pounsett wrote on Feb 13^th, 2017 at 12:27am:

Slow.

Depending on what is needed, you might start with 100 grit. As you progress to a finer grit you will see a more polished look. Some like to go to 400, others up to 2,000.

Also, some woods polish better than others.

When hand sanding spindles, circular sanding scratches is a real frustration.  To try to minimize them I don't run the lathe faster than 400 RPM and move the sandpaper back and forth along the lathe axis rather quickly.  If sanding with a grit less than 220, often I'll then turn off the lathe and hand sand along the lathe axis before moving to the next grit.  And I'm not skipping grits.

When power sanding, the sanding pads don't last very long at all if the drill speed is high and/or the pressure on the wood is significant.

Light pressure, slow speeds for both wood and angle drill so the abrasives get better 'traction' for cutting. If you hand sand and fingers are getting hot, so is the wood, which is bad for the wood, slow down and ease up.. I mostly do bowls, and use an angle drill. Drill speed is never above 600 rpm.

robo hippy