EG,
Glad to help brainstorm stuff anytime (my brain runs like a thirsty tourist after a trip to a foreign land).

BTW: those Mill-Drills on Ebay are waaaaaay overpriced - I think one guy listed his too high and the other guy thought that was then the going rate when he posted his.
You might try low-balling them repeatedly over a few months time - they might wear down.

You could also try using a top-bearing flush-trim bit in a router (the bearing is on the shank end of the cutting edges rather than on the dangling end. I don't know how well Vespel glues, but a piece of phenolic glued on the end of the rod with superglue could be your master bearing surface.

I've seen top-bearing bits with only 1/2" long cutting edges and 1/2" diameter shanks so they are quite stiff. Also, if you taper grind to OD of the bearing slightly, you can take two passes, lowering the bit in the router a touch to take a finish pass (or wrap a turn of tape on the master form on the first pass and take it off for the second pass).

You could also try feeding the cat lots of castor oil an hour before the skinning starts...
:-)