Hello to all & Thank you Jim & Ed for the kind words! Well, we won this one, and that doesn't alway happen, so I thought I'd explain the process used so that others may have some further insight on how to do something similar in the future.. Keep in mind that the process that works is usually discovered very shortly after the process you thought would work has been tried!....
Also, a unique feature of this forum is that there are some few members such as John, Rich & Rick who can't wait for the next challenge and are quite talented in their own right, I sometimes arrive at my final idea based on material I have either seen or read from their previous posts, efforts, ideas and suggestions... Such is the case with this project...
First off, my willingness to try to solve this dilemmia started when my brain failed to over-ride my mouth, and the words, "I'll do it!" ..came out... Really only being aware that, number one, it's hard to ruin any worse, something that's pretty much already ruined.... and number two, I've always liked Jims contributions to the forum and was happy to at least make an effort in his behalf...
So, when I received the barrel, I was a bit shocked to see not one bulge, but two! And, the thing looked like a small short anaconda that just swallowed two small pigs... It was immeadiatly appearant that lathe work was probably not going to be the best solution, but perhaps a little squeeze here and there might bring some improvement. I have a pretty good selection of reamers so the thought was to ream a hole in the split fixture exactly the diameter of the largest bulge and by grinding the fixture blocks at the seam, would allow the barrel bulge to compress back down to a smaller dimension. Example: hole A .5065" across horizontally, .5010" vertically.. hole B .5010" across horizontally, .4935" vertically.. these two sizes were adaquate to arrive at the final dia. of the barrel outside dia... The rod is about .003" under to allow the steel to flex then spring back some after force is applied..... Aaaahhh yes force...
... I have an arbor press, piece of cake right? I pushed on that thing till my caboose derailed...
., I would guess 2 to 3 tons of force aaannnddd, nothing.. not even a thousandth... So, here's where plan B springs into action.. several hours later, I cut a slot in the bottom of my arbor press ram to accept the upper fixture half, and then, with the barrel properly set in the fixture assembly and while exerting as much pressure as I could on the barrel in the fixture... I nailed it, the arbor press ram top end, with a big brass hammer... it moved a few thousands!!! Rotate and wham, rotate and wham, r & w, r & w, etc... Smaller hole in the fixture, r & w, r & w.... anyway, you get the picture... It came back very, very slowly, and almost perfectly round.. (who'd a thunk it!
) I was pretty amazed myself when done... It has a deviation of only .0015" at any point, so, "stop while you're ahead" came screaming into my brain...
and so now, all you guys know what I know, and it was all in good fun! Best to all, til...lat'r....GT