Removing Contour Tool Marking, An Idea?

I’m talking about removing the tool marks from a contour cut which mainly happens on the end grain side. I recently started paying attention to this and hope to minimize final sanding.

For Example: Cutting 3" a circle on 3/4" maple with a 1/4" downcut using the feeds/speeds/depth standard in CC/CM on a 5 Pro (although I usually bump it up to 140% of the standard feed rate in motion). This will result in very faint lines around the circle from each pass that need to be sanded out. The more dull a bit is, the more pronounced the marks are.

I’m wondering if anyone has any experience with a solution I came across the other day. Make a rough cut offset vector for 3.02" and run it with standard feed/speed/depth. Then, run the second and final cut vector for the final 3" circle except set the tool depth to make a 0.25" pass, resulting in three finish cut passes. It would only be taking off a 0.01" width of material, so would the machine be able to handle this and would this be an effective solution?

Yes. But I would go 3.010", or even 3.005", and do the final full depth if you have the flute length.

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I’ll try to do some tests this weekend. I’m also wondering if a compression bit would be more appropriate for this final pass at full depth.

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