Thanks Ed and Jon...makes sense. I guess just keep the lathe speed relatively slow when dry sanding to avoid any heat.
How about a slow speed of zero when sanding ? I'm old school, and hate sanding !! The only thing I have ever wet sanded was on automobiles or other metal objects. I do not like water on my lathe or the mess it makes when wet sanding !! These is my personal thoughts on sanding. Many people, when sanding for a fine finish, tend to oversand their projects. Most people sand with the lathe running. This is fine for rough sanding a project, but I would never do it to finish sand. There are several reasons to my methods. When sanding a turning object you are adding grooves or rings to your blank. This is why you have to use finer and finer grits to remove these rings or scratches. Also if you look at the inside of your hand it is not perfectly flat, so unless you use some form of solid backer, you are going to sand unevenly. If you stop your lathe and sand lengthwise on your blank any groves will be less noticeably or non existant. You realy don't need to go through all those grits to get a great finish. On acrylics I will start with 400 than 600 and finish with 900 or 1200. Make sure to clean between each grit change. Next I apply a coat of One-Step Plastic Polish at full speed. If you want more depth, apply more coats of finish. I have never realy noticed a difference in this method and using my Micro Mesh to 12,000. You could also do the same thing using buffing compounds. On wooden blanks or wood in general, 100 220 and 400 grits should work just fine because it's the CA or whatever finish that you apply over the wood that your going to smooth out with the higher grits of paper or 0000 steel wool, and then polish to a shine. If your base is not perfect, your top coats will show it. As I said, this is just my method, and not right for everyone, but it sure cuts down on time, materials, and the mess. Jim S