Is There Really Much of a Difference Between P40 and P50?

[onocoffee]

I was perusing the Hartville Hardware Clearance Outlet on eBay this morning and saw listing for the Festool 499030 Rubin 2 115x228 P40 abrasives 50ct for $35.

I have Rubin P50 so it made me wonder what the differences are between Rubin and Rubin 2? And how much of a difference could there be between P40 and P50?

Additionally, I also seen P140 and P150 Granat and am wondering also how much of a difference there could be? My instinct tells me "not much" - but I've been wrong many times before.

 

[luvmytoolz]

From memory the difference is just some improvements to the abrasive coating and backing.

I could be wrong, but I couldn't see any meaningful difference in the grits being so close myself.

 

[jeffinsgf]

This doesn't begin to answer your question, but if you need anything south of 80 grit for furniture work, there needs to be some reassessment of workflow. Sculptural work excluded, of course.

 

[rvieceli]

I picked up a bunch of Rubin when they were closing it out and have replaced with Rubin 2 as I run out. The official word was better removal and life by about 30% but I can’t tell a very significant difference in actual use.

I find that most grits below P80 take dramatically more time with the next higher grit to get rid of the scratches. If I feel like it need a grit that aggressive for sculpting or shaping, I much prefer to use a carving disk in an angle grinder.

P80 grit in a geared mode sander can do a lot of material removal though.

Ron

 

[bwehman]

I have a pretty stratified mix of Granat, Rubin and Rubin 2 in the shop and on wood, I've never noticed a difference.

 

[Coen]

I have Rubin P50 so it made me wonder what the differences are between Rubin and Rubin 2?

Rubin 2: New and improved
But that was already 10+ years ago I think...

 

[luvmytoolz]

I have a pretty stratified mix of Granat, Rubin and Rubin 2 in the shop and on wood, I've never noticed a difference.

The main differences are in the materials being sanded, Granat is designed to not load up so bad on painted items, whereas Rubin is mainly for unfinished timber.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I can tell you for sure that there is a heck of a lot more difference between P40 and P50 than there is with anything up around P150.
As Ron said, unless you are into some heavy shaping, those grits are pretty serious. Go for the P50 first, it will take a lot less to blend out those scratches. The RS2 is not exactly a shaping tool. This would go much better with an RO