Okay, so I ordered a flexible shaft with a 1/4" chuck to sand small bowls an other items on my mini lathe. I am trying to decide what to drive it with. I have an old unused small 5 speed bench top drill press. I am thinking that the head from it might be a good way to drive the flex shaft. I am curious what the best speed to drive the shaft would be. I am guessing it might be within the range of speeds that the drill press supports without modification. In another thread someone mentioned they were driving one at 1750 rpm. That sounded a little fast to me. If 1750 is indeed a good speed for this application I'd just use the motor with a diy direct drive coupler, but I am guessing that stepping down the speed a bit is probably a good idea. That would be easy to accommodate with the existing stepped pulleys if they are in the right range (760 rpm is the lowest speed as currently configured). It would get more complicated but I could add different pulley or another shaft and step it down more. I guess that a speed control pedal may be another option.

Thoughts?