My sanding hood is up only for sanding. I have another You Tube clip up about it. When turning, it is green wood 99.9% of the time, so I generally don't need a hood when turning. I keep thinking about a larger one that can be set up on the lathe that stays in place, and I can partition things off for specialty sanding things. The barrel is a 55 gallon food grade barrel. I can sand all day, and there is no dust in my nose (tested a couple of times by sanding black walnut for 6 or so hours) which is why I don't wear a dust mask or hood.
The walnut oil thing does confuse me, nut vs leaves and husks. Mike Meridith (The Doctor) explained it all to our club once, and he is a chemist. He dumbed it down enough for us to understand, but I forgot most of it. The walnut oils used as finish oils are a lot different than the walnut oil sold in the food section at your grocery store. Again, I forgot. You can apply several coats right away to put more in the end grain which is the part that goes dry first. If you wait a day or two, then you can seal the under coat with a fresh coat, and it doesn't dry out all the way.
Vince Welch was the one who started me slow speed sanding. It really does cut better. My guess is that when sanding at high speed, the abrasives don't get a chance to dig in and cut like they do at slow speeds. They get better traction at low speed.
robo hippy