Belt Sander
Many pipe makers use a combination Belt Disk sander, such as this Delta:
It has 1" x 42" belt sander, in combination with an 8" disc sander on the side. This tool is common and inexpensive, and available in home improvement stores. Some pipe makers use this as their main shaping tool for the stummel, but most prefer a sanding disc chucked into their lathe or a motor and arbor dedicated to the task (some have several). While this combination tool has a sanding disc, it is not easily accessed for stummel shaping. Because of its proximity to the bench the tool is sitting on, one is very limited one the range of motion of the stummel when shaping on the disc. It also has a protective shield that interferes with using the disc for shaping. This shield can be removed though, which helps, but it's still far from ideal.
The disc of this combination unit is very usefull for squaring the briar blocks before drilling them though. Depending on how your block is chucked into the lathe, having the side of the blocks square with one another can be critical to having the draught hole hit dead center in the bottom of the tobacco chamber. If the block is square, it allows a self-centering chucks to have the block perfectly centered regardless of which side of the block is chucked. With a square, you can set the table by the sanding disc exactly 90° to the face of the sanding disc, and adjust the guide to also be exactly at the 0 point.
Most people use the belt when they use this tool for shaping shaping. Some find it is helpful to remove the backing plate when doing so. The belt for is also very helpful for shaping hand cut stems, where it can be used to remove most of the excess vulcanite, and also to roughly cut in the button. This is not a perfect tool, but it works, and is easily obtained at modest cost.
Here are two more professional approaches to using sanders for shaping:
An open disk sander:
And the following is a shot of the sanders in use in the shop of Rainer Barbi:
On the left you can see the motor for the disk sander, center is a belt sander with two separate belts, and on the right is a custom built belt sander. Many of the European pipe makers are using this type of machine:
Bellow are details of Rainer's custom built belt sander unit:
