Holes or No Holes? (sandpaper)

[Phil Winn]

For sanding/smoothing finishes on furniture-primarily table tops .....I need to purchase some Mirka Royal Micro hook & loop sandpaper disc-.. 320P, 400P, 600P, 800P, 1000P, 1200P, 1500P....I have a Festool 150/3 ROS sander(with CT33 vac). For smoothing finishes I sometimes use the
Festool 150/3 "8 holed medium flexable sanding pad" AND sometimes
put an "soft/spongy Interface (no-holes) pad between the ROS sander
and the sandpaper. Obviously, the ROS & vac combo will only work
WITHOUT the Interface pad. So I can use "8-holed" or "no-holed"
sandpaper discs with either the "direct pad" or with the "interface" pad....My questions are for smoothing finishes, should I use:
1. No-hole sandpaper discs with "direct pad" and "interface pad"
or
2. 8-hole sandpaper discs with "direct pad" and "interface pad"
I guess I could purchase both "8-hole" and "no-hole", but would rather only have to buy/store/use one version UNLESS I should use both.
3. For the Festool 150/3 ROS sander, three sanding pads (all have holes) are available; a "hard", a "soft" (comes with), and a "supersoft"; for smoothing finishes on furniture table-tops, which pad should be used?
4. When should the "interface pad" (no-holes; super spongy) be used?
5. Or is the cleaning action of the hole-paper with the vac more important....
6. I am sorry about my poorly written question(s), but
I'm tired and my mind is somewhere else...thanks,,
Phil

[Dave Falkenstein]

If you use sandpaper without the center hole and outside holes on a Festool sander, the dust extraction will not work well, and the paper will clog more quickly. Festool sandpaper can be purchased from Klingspor, in addition to the papers available from Festool. The soft and supersoft sanding pads are intended to be used when sanding contours.

If you do not get answers to all your questions here, try posting on the Festool Owners Group at Yahoo. There have been some threads at the Yahoo group on polishing furniture finishes with the Festool sanders.

[Bruce Page]

Go with #5
The paper will last longer and your lungs will be happier.