Hey Steve,
I nearly lost the ability of playing guitar when using such a disc on a motor with no gear (1:1, angle grinder). Sanding disc plunged deeply into the flesh of my inner forearm, stopped only at 1 mm distance to the main hand nerve. When the paramedics came, the room looked like if I had been slaughtering. Muscle sheath had to be sewn.
If you have a CNC, why don’t you replace sanding by slowly milling with a 8 mm radius cutter. You can get finishes that require no sanding after this (if you take time) like in in this example. Leaves a smooth finish when using a 8 mm radius cutter as last pass, 0.4 mm stepover.
Sorotec Shop » Cutting Tools » Sorotec tools » Radius
Mill Z2 Ø 8 mm UNI
Remember there were millenaries before us where sanding paper wasn’t even invented. I have worked for nearly twenty years with hand tools exclusively (no power tools). There I learned to work without any sanding paper. I hate and avoid it. What the people had then were all steel cutting edges: Handplanes, cabinet scrapers, chisels. And they got their work done. Look a the veritas scraping planes (big and small). Fine tools.
Image: Gustave Caillebotte - The Floor Planers