Sanding advise

I just found this article about power sanding on the Sandpaper Blog: Sanding Slow when Woodturning. Good advise I think. Maybe I need a new sander though. I use a power drill and although it has variable speed controlled by the pressure on the trigger, it is really hard to maintain a slow speed.

Who would have thought there would ever be a blog about sandpaper!

I have recently been turning a few salad bowls, and have been experimenting with sanding technique. One thing that I find really annoying is having to step back a few grits when I discover a deep scratch mark that I missed. So I have been alternating from power sanding and hand sanding.

For example, I might start by power sanding at 100 grit, then hand sand at 120. I will then stop the lathe and inspect the surface to make sure all the swirly sanding marks from the power sanding have been replaced by concentric circles made by the handsanding. Then I will power sand at 150 grit, stop the lathe and check that all the concentric circle marks have been replaced by swirly marks. And so it continues.

Let me know if you try this technique.