Yeah, no kidding.
I'm not familiar with wood lathes at all. The only lathes I've seen were used for machining metal. For metal, as most of you know, the cutting tool is held in some sort of jig that allows the dist from the tool to the centerline of the work to be adjusted. It looks like you just hold the sanding block in your hand as the wood turns, correct?
Great idea with the drills, Drifter. Your skill look a lot more advanced than mine though, so I don't know if I could build a lathe out of old drill(s).
Re cedar--- I have some of that from a tree that was cut down on my property. Looking on-line I see that it's only about 20% more dense than balsa, so I might give it a try with that.