So confused on rubber thickness, please help!

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I'm so confused on the rules of rubber thickness, and rather than waste any more time trying to figure it out I thought I'd just ask some experts!

I guess I should mention I only want to use "normal" inverted rubber, which I think is what the rules call "sandwich rubber" (please correct me if I'm wrong). From what I can gather from the rules, 2.04.03 states that it cannot have a total thickness of more than 4mm. Then in 2.04.03.02, it seems to state that a rubber can't be more than 2mm.

I must be interpreting that wrong, because I see lots of talk of players just adhering to the 4mm total rule, and ignoring the 2mm one. Can someone explain?

From Adam Bobrow's profile, it says he uses "max thickness" on both sides. From what I can gather from some websites, "max thickness" seems to be 2.5mm in a lot of cases. Wouldn't that mean he's using an illegal 5mm total?

Even if someone just used 2.5mm on 1 side and then 1.5 on the other, isn't the 2.5mm illegal then?

2mm seems to be a very popular choice, but even at that thickness for each side, wouldn't that make it 4mm plus glue/tape...essentially making it a tiny bit over 4mm and therefore illegal too?

If there's an easy explanation somewhere please direct me to it, because as far as I can tell, this is the most basic yet guarded secret on Earth! ;-)
 
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says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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Yeah. So if a sponge is 2.5mm thick, then the topsheet that is put on that sponge has to be 1.5mm or less to equal 4mm or less.

When a company lists Max thickness it really means that that is the thickest the company makes but it kind of means that the sponge and the topsheet combined is pretty close to 4mm thick.

Some rubbers the topsheet is thicker. Some the topsheet is thinner. With the topsheets that are thicker, then the sponge cannot be quite as thick.
 
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Max thickness varies from rubber to rubber. The thicker the sponge, the thinner the topsheet. Also, limit should not be more than 4mm for total thickness. Newer German rubbers are at 2.33mm max and they are termed as thin topsheet thick sponged rubbers. It varies some are at 2.2mm or 2.25mm depends on the model for max thickness.
 
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Oh okay, that's making more sense now. It was confusing, as I found full conversations with guys saying they had 2.5mm on the red side, so could only have 1.5mm on the black side. They were obviously as confused as I was! haha...thanks so much guys!
 
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