Egad, I wrote this all out but couldn't submit; something had crapped out.
Having worked in sawmill maint. for 22+ yrs., I've made parts for, some entirely from scratch,and rebuilt lots of cylinders. I would highly advise honed cylinder mtl. and chromed rod mtl. Smooth can't be emphasised enough. Rule of thumb: If a nick catches your fingernail, it will cut a seal. The chromed rod mtl. has a lower coefficient of friction, and won't rust up. This stuff commercially available, but, granted, not cheap. Parker seals are the ones of choice, and they have a "Seal Design Handbook" that will help a bunch dimensionally. The handbook has cutaway drawings to help you design the rod seal packing gland, best made of brass. My preference is tie bolt cylinders, more goes into the initial build, but much easier to rebuild. Talk to your local hydraulics shop or industrial supplier. These things aren't at all hard to make.
