RS2E - What paper selection should I buy?

[Warrior]

Hi all,
I have a new RS2e sander and although it is not equipt with the plug it cord :-\ I am still excited to get it incorporated into the work flow.
I work with mainly solid woods and do not do any of the finishing of my work ( yet ). I was think of getting:

Rubin 120
Brilliant 180
Brilliant 240
Brilliant 320
Brilliant 400

all 100 cnt boxes.

That is quite the investment about 200.00 in sandpaper. Before I do I would like to make sure that this decision is sound.

Any thoughts?

Eiji Fuller

 

[Warrior]

If anyone has any plug-it adapter kits please PM me.

 

[Tim Sproul]

I work with mainly solid woods and do not do any of the finishing of my work ( yet ).

Unless finish work is close in the future, I would skip anything above 240 grit and stick with rubin only.  IME, rubin cuts faster for a given grit and lasts longer than brilliant2.

For bare wood that will be finished with a film finish of some sort (varnish, lacquer, shellac, poly, etc.), you don't need nearly the fine polish as wood that will only see a non-film forming oil such as BLO or tung oil or such.  If oiling wood is common to your clients (which I doubt since you don't do the finishing....oiling wood is unbelievably easy to do - hence why it is so popular with hobbyists), then you might go up to p400 with brilliant2 paper.  This also seems like a question to ask your finisher........they might demand you finish to lower or higher grit, depending on their own experiences.

IME, the RS2e is a fantastic sander but it is much more prone to leaving swirls because of corning of the paper (and probably because it is orbital rather than random orbital).  This is compared to the 150/3 or Rotex.  The RS2e can also be coaxed into being more aggressive by applying pressure to the sander (kinda like the Rotex in eccentric mode)....while the 150 sander can't be coaxed so much.

 

[Per Swenson]

Eiji,

Though these are all 6 inch for the rotex and the 150,

the point is you can not go wrong with consumables,

you bill for them and they don't go bad.

Just look upon it as a investment with a return,

and buy them all. ;D

Per
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[Joe Jensen]

I have the following;

Rubin 80
Rubin 100
Rubin 120
Rubin 150
Rubin 180
Brilliant 220
Brilliant 320
Brilliant 400

I use it to level finishes.  I normally start with 120, but I bought the coarser grits as I occasionally use them.  BTW, if this is your first Festool, I find that the paper lasts 3-5X longer than what I've used in the past.

 

[Warrior]

Joe

That is a good list of papers.
in 100 cnt boxes at around 40.00 each that is 320.00 in sand paper. yikes!

how about skipping some grits and go with a package like this:

Rubin 80
Rubin 120
Rubin 180

Brilliant 220
Brilliant 320

Or am I making more work for myself by skipping a grit.

Eiji

 

[Warrior]

  BTW, if this is your first Festool

now that's funny ;D ;D

 

[Eli]

Eiji are you only going to use this sander exclusively, or is it only for higher grit finishing? I don't have the RS2, I use the BS75, rotex 150 and RTS400, but my stock is something like this:

I don't have any grit higher than 120 for the belt sander
I have 24 to 2000 for the Rotex. Rubin, brilliant, titan, platin
I have 220 and up for the RTS400 (I think it's all brilliant)

My impression of the RS2 is that it's a large surface finisher, not a flattener. So if it was me, I wouldn't get anything much below 120. But where you talk about skipping grits, that span doesn't look too bad to me, but I'd go up to 400 with it and drop 80 from the list. I've even been jumping from 220 to 400 a lot.