I use the planer and hand planes to knock the high spots off but turn to various hand sanders to get a really smooth result before polishing. I know that the hand tool guys can get superior results with high quality, super sharp hand planes. (one of these days I hope to develop the necessary skills to get quick quality results with planes) I doubt that they make very many cutting boards.
The random orbital sander in the middle has a 60 grit Dura-Grit disk on it and is such an odd duck that it doesn't get connected to my Fein vacuum. The other two sanders are connected to my shop vacuum and the Fein turns on automatically when the sander is turned on. To reduce the amount of plugging and unplugging I use the squid, the sanders are plugged into the squid and the squid is plugged into the shop vac. All I have to do is to change the dust collection hose as I change sanders.
The other thing that I do is sand 3-4 boards at a time. That way I use the Porter Cable random orbital with 80 then 120 then 220 first. I finish the job with the Black and Decker finishing sander with 320 grit. The end result is a smooth fine finish regardless of how nasty the grain is on the oak that I use for the majority of the boards.
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