I gave up after the weld broke. Called another company and told them what I had done. He said it was a lot more than they would try.
Both sides of the weld held to the material. Split the weld down the middle. So I V-notched it. Piled a crap load of weld on it and put another gusset across that weld. Started pushing the cylinder and I fooled myself into thinking it was moving.
But I needed another 1/2" shim when I let the cylinder off. Then another. I looked at my indexing marks. It had moved 1/8". Now I have a longer cylinder. So progress is being made.