Reducing diameter of a ball screw shaft.

Hello,

I have a number of ballscrews with a 17mm shaft. Its far more
economical for me to source fixed/floating support blocks for a shaft
with a 15mm diameter.
I have a lathe at work and am wondering how difficult it would be to
reduce the diameter by 1mm.
What do I need to be aware of if attempting this procedure?

I noted an article at: http://www.roton.com/web/bulletins.911.jsp
in relation to "Annealing the Shafting For Easier Machining"

I dont particularly like the idea of sticking the ball nut in a bucket
of water.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Robert