Lathing Hex Stock

[JesseK]

I have a question to all of the machinists out there -- this is for the final production version of our shooter roller. As an fyi, there are springs on the inside of the noodles; hence we need a solid core to bolt the springs to.

The other day, we were able to bore out a 1/2" hole in our hex stock (1.5" face-to-face diameter, 6" length). We were also able to key it so it fits nicely on the motor shafts. I'd like to keep it as one solid piece though, so that the motor shafts stay perfectly lined up with each other. The next step is to lighten the durn thing, since the raw stock weighed roughly 2 lbs for 6". I know we could take it to the band saw and camfer the ends, but I was also wondering if we could lathe the middle down at all? In the picture above you can see that the middle part of the aluminum roller hex is lathed down a bit -- is this possible?

I don't mind the weight overall; I believe we'll be under budget with what we're trying to do. However, this particular piece will sit about 36" off the floor, so I feel I at least need to investigate this. We stand to lose about 1/2 a pound if we can take away the material in the middle.

Thanks in advance!