Well Vic, given your review on the chipping away sander, I went and ordered the delta, as well as some belts from lee valley (we'll see how that goes) - still haven't picked up compound for the leather tho.

The chipping away motor should be reversible - I had sent them an email a while back asking about that, and they said they actually reversed them at their shop prior to shipping.

One other thing, it looks like on the Delta, you could reduce the speed of the belt by changing out that pulley on the side that drives the sanding belt. Maybe go twice the diameter to halve the rpms - something to tinker with.