A process for placing a roller burnished finish on the central portion of an unfinished lathe-turned heater tube includes controlling the rotational speed of the burnishing rollers and the pressure of the burnishing rollers against the central portion of the heater tube so that tooling marks are no longer apparent under substantially 10× magnification and the length of the central portion of the heater tube increases by no more than 0.002 inches per inch of length of the central portion of the heater tube.