Thanks for the info!
Before talking with my oldtimer colleagues about how they would skim brake drums, I looked around for how to skim brake drums built into wheels and came upon
of a kindly old British chap doing motorcycle drums in the mill, by holding a lathe tool in the spindle of the mill, with the power off, feeding the quill, and spinning the wheel by hand. I showed this video to one of my colleagues and he gave me the go-ahead to use the clapped-out Bridgeport in the middle of the night for this project. So here I write, bleary-eyed, about my experience.
I ended up taking a similar approach to that in the video, with a few notable changes.
The axle was mounted in a 5C collet, tightened in a 5C collet block, in the vise of the clapped-out Bridgeport mill along with a bunch of spacers to keep it within Y-axis travel limits. There was barely enough space for the wheel with the tire deflated. I put a brazed carbide boring bar in the chuck of the mill and engaged the low gear range so that the spindle wouldn't turn when I put load on the tool. I locked the quill in place and moved the table up and down to feed the tool while I was manually spinning the wheel. The axle flex combined with lash in the mill's geartrain meant that I had a huge problem with chatter. Low speeds and aggressive feeds were the name of the game. Putting a thumb between the mill spindle and the wheel axle sorta dampened things out. Because of the chatter, the surface finish was pretty bad so I cleaned up with some 100-grit emery paper.
I got it to within 2 thou, using the tenths indicator. I guess now I really have voided the warranty! I'll see how it rides soon!!
Here are some pics.
Upon looking harder I think the American Pacemaker lathe could have fit this wheel, but I don't think it would have been a good plan. It has a three-jaw universal chuck on it, and it ought to have a four-jaw independent for a job like this where concentricity is paramount, so I'd have to change chucks and they weigh 400 pounds. I'd also have to bore between centers, so setting up all the tooling would take me two hours, for two minutes of machining. With the mill, the equation was reversed: two minutes setup and two hours of machining.