Just finished my first large 3d

[Ernie Balch]

I agree with the others, Across grain for roughing and with grain for final finish. I get clean results with Jatoba wood, no sanding required.

[Ken Sully]

Ernie
Very Cool!
Nice work

[Xray]

I wouldn't go so far as to drop it to 4%, should get satisfactory results at 8-10%.
If not, I'd suspect a dull tool, really impossible to tell by eyeballing it, you usually find out a tool is shot when it produces unsatisfactory results. That, and/or perhaps improper tool setting parameters.

[Bob Eustace]

Beautiful piece of work Ernie!

[Hoytbasses]

Beautiful piece of work Ernie!

What he said.......

karl

[Ernie Balch]

Thanks for the nice words guys. Here is another example in Jatoba wood, 1/8" tapered ball nose 10% stopover and no sanding. A huge improvement when you respect the grain.

Going across the grain for roughing reduces the splitting problem and going with the grain on finish pass both hides the marks and produces a better finish.

[kurt_rose]

Nice! I made a bunch of those seahorses for my wife and she was giving them to all her friends from work. Great file.