You got a torch to finish? That's rough. Gas forges are just easier to swap parts on, you know?

My neighbor wrecked his truck wheels doing the exact same thing last spring.

Oh man, Frank sounds like a legend. Had a similar thing happen with an old millwright who showed me how I was setting my expansion readings wrong on a firetube job. He pulled out this beat up notebook from the 80s with hand drawn diagrams showing how the tube sheet thickness changes the whole calculation. I had been going by a half inch rule of thumb for years and turns out I was off by almost a full turn on some really thick sheets. Still think about that guy every time I set my torque.

Lube the edges, sand them down a bit.

Holy crap, 18 inches in three years? That's insane, I thought dry creeks took way longer to show that kind of change.