I'm talking about the RAS 115. This isn't a review but just some observations of mine and i believe some misconceptions of others and previously myself.

I had a stair and landing which needed the paint and deck coating removed altogether or at least to a level that would reliably take new paint or coatings. I needed some new abrasives and looked on the FOG abrasives thread and it says I think cristal, Titan, and saphir are best for this and rubin for bare wood (for a RAS). Here are some point for things I found:

-My dealer said they only had saphir and that he didn't know if the others would be good anyways. With the ras only doing one thing, removing stuff aggressively, you think you'd know and stock the couple types.

-I asked for extremely aggressive grit because it was going to be very tough and slow, they suggested 36 max otherwise it would tear apart the wood below and take forever to get rid of the marks.

-They said producing a flat surface would be tough as the ras is used with half the pad in a tilted manner.

-I mentioned that I had surprisingly good results with higher grits that I had with my ras. The dealer said that was not what it was intended for.

I'm not trying to sound negative about my dealer, in fact I say these things only because I pretty much agreed with or expected all the things above.

So,
-The saphir seemed great. Don't think I could expect any better from an abrasive. Even the used and clogged papers I was throwing away still could be used if you wanted but they didn't "cut" the same way as new and so I needed to move onto new ones.
-The first day I quickly realized the 36 grit was not aggressive enough. I had to use a speed of 6 for proper results and focus on not putting much pressure on otherwise the papers would gunk up and be so slow they were garbage. I got 24 the next day and it was much better. If there was a 10 I would have got that. The surprising thing was for example when I sanded the soft red cedar hand rails the ras didn't tear, cut, or leave any marks. In fact my rotex with twice the grit leaves terrible swirl marks without taking off much coating either.
-while using it for 15 hrs in two days I realized that the ras is fine used flat to the workpiece. Just like the rotexes it takes time and a technique and once again the surprise was that it was even easier to control than my RO90.
-I don't think festool accidentally made higher grit abrasives for the ras. Both here and elsewhere guys have said they use their rotex only in rotary mode unless above 120g or so and then only if using stain. The shinex is rotary and used to polish at a super fine level. Why is rotary only suitable to super coarse or super fine? I don't think it is. Using my ras with 24g on red cedar left a smooth surface ready for paint! I'm not joking.

Many people love the ras myself included. But I was surprised how many things I thought I knew about it that proved to be wrong after these two long days of sanding. Now this is absolutely my favorite sander and not the one trick pony I thought it was!
PS- some parts of the stair had 12 coatings!

Dogwood,

I couldn't agree more with you. My dealer was no help when it came to the RAS115. After 15 hours of work with it on clear fir paneling with at least 8 coats of latex I came to appreciate this sander.  I finished the wood with a quick pass with the ETS 150/5 with 120 and 180 grit and was done. Like all festool it takes time to fully appreciate the potential of each of their tools.

It is an awesome tool...love mine!

Scot

The ras is the whip.  My coworkers scribe with grinders a dust mask while I work pretty much dust free.  I love how aggressive it is even compared to the rotex.  Definitely a must have in the field.

Stop it!
I just bought a RS200 on Friday...
How many more sanders do I 'need'!!!

I'm thinking RS-2e.  Yup, that's what I'm thinking 

How about an angle grinder with an Arbortech cutter?

darn, darn, darn and double dog darn !!!

Walked into my dealer this morning to talk about compressors and walked out with a RAS 115 and boxes of P36 and P50 Saphir.

Of all the sanders I went for next, I thought fate would put the LS130 in my hands, but when you really look at the RAS115 you see it's virtues.

Nope - still no further down the track on a new compressor ...

Tell me about it ... the only thing that's saving me from going all in on Precisio and CMS is my leaning towards Powermatic, Jet and Hammer gear in terms of table saw, band saw, thicknesser and jointer planer. Though I also feel that a CMS update is overdue in light of the interchangeable bases of the CARVEX and OF2200.

Hopefully the CMS of the future will have provision for base clip in OF2200 new-OF1400, CARVEX and drop in new-TS75 ... and for bonus points - smart plug-it cables with remote speed control from the CMS mains switch.

All of this still leaves me hanging for a router table option though. Decisions ... decisions ... decisions. $3K for an OF2200 in a CMS setup takes me a long way down the CMS investment path.

I'm quite impressed with my RAS115 for general hogging away wood to fine scribing work.  Best way to scribe ANY trim.  But loose the Festool Fastfix pad (defined as velcro that don't last!) and get the hard backup pad that allows you to use generic fiber grit discs.

No worries about burning up your velcro pad.

JT

The RAS has never been intended for scribing, originally it is meant for removing paint. That's what the standard velcro FastFix pad is for. Scribing is an American thing, it's not so much done in Europe. When you are going to remove wood instead of paint, then of course you gonna break the velcro pad. Wood is a much harder material.   

We make sure we don't have to scribe to start with in the beginning. Walls are plastered level. Whenever small gaps exist, we don't scribe but we use caulk to fill them up. Or don't fill them up at all. On this board, I have seen Americans who scribe a piece of wood to every brick in a wall. We would never do that over here. In most cases we plaster the walls completely, having the bricks exposed inside is quite rare here.      

Crown moulding is also a rarity here so there's no reason to scribe that either.    

Caulk rule the roost in cheap apartment/ rental property around my area.   I've heard it called " Half inch molding" on more than one occasion.   Scribing is a word missing from their vocabulary but they are mainly pushing for speed and low price.  My RAS is my black sheep in shining armor for so many task, but I guess time is money and caulk is cheap! LOL.

Making a wall straight is something I believe passed away in a previous generation so scribing is a very common task for me.

I would never caulk large gaps between wood.  However, I think it's a grand idea to fill large areas between caulk with wood.

caulk is right grand I think.

I'm just finishing off refurbishing a 1900's terrace house. We've left on all the old skirts & architraves, some places new plasterboard where lathe and plaster has fallen off.

You HAVE to caulk the gaps, because, well, that's just the way you do it !! I'm going to end up using 12-18 tubs of the stuff !! It's quite a big place. The larger gaps, shove a bit of paper behind them, so you don't fill the thing with your expensive (smirk) caulk. Let it go off for a day, then it will shrink into the gap, then come and put a little 'top-up' onto it.