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Looking for input from those mechanical/engineering minds

You don’t need a powered solution at all. Instead, glue a portion of a wide sanding belt to a flat substrate to make a sanding slab, then turn your partial vessel upside-down and move it around by hand. A few swipes will even out high spots quickly.

Tim
 
Think vertical lathe. Build a potters wheel. Small motor to keep weight down, pulleys to step speed down, and a shaft that will accept a chuck.

Or find a cheap used lathe and pull the headstock to create the potters wheel.
 
An actual potter's wheel might work nicely - they are almost always variable speed and should be enough torque. A pro potter friend uses multiple wheels. Might find an inexpensive on on Facebook, etc or from a retiring potter or potter heir. It should be easy to mount any kind of a spindle adapter or even a simple threaded rod to hold the chuck.

The problem with a repurposed potter's wheel might be access to the work since the wheels often have wide, round trays. But with the motor and speed control it should be trivial to adapt it to provide clearance for any sanding need.

JKJ
 
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