Anyone here ever have their pistons machined?

Yes, I have noticed that very few people seem to give specifics. Its as if they don't know them or are guarding some family secret.
It appears from all these threads that my case is unusual and that nobody has ever dealt with it before. I refuse to believe that. It is great that others are able to make their combinations work, but an actual line by line recipe would have really cleared things up. Nobody is paid to dispense advice here. We all donate our time in the sake of entertainment. Personally, I do get satisfaction when I am able to answer a members question with a solution that helps. I've been a gearhead for years but I know that even a newbie is capable of providing help sometimes.
I know that without question, a piston change would have solved the problem. Dished pistons with a quench pad would have dropped me into 9.5 even after zero deck. Months ago when I first got serious about this, the majority of guys that responded blamed the MP 509 cam for being an antique and wrote that a "bigger" cam would stop the knock.
I agree with IQ, this has been a "shotgun" approach. Maybe other guys would have quietly dropped off the radar after a series of failed attempts. We have all seen this....A member starts a post and never returns. Maybe they fixed their problem, maybe they didn't. In a way, I am sacrificing my ego for the sake of providing a learning experience. AFTER this is figured out, I will certainly have a recipe to show others what to do, what NOT to do and how I arrived at the conclusion.

I am still trying to figure out how disassembling your engine and machining the pistons to lower your compression ratio in an attempt to quell your detonation issue is easier than methodically trying to adjust your timing (as many have suggested)? Maybe this issue can't be solved by timing adjustments alone but isn't it a hell of lot easier to try than to remove your engine and rebuild it?

You have started SIX different threads related to this issue. This could have been an interesting educational experience for many but it is a convoluted mess.

Btw, what part of the country do you live in? This isn't listed in your profile information and we are discussing different qualities of gas in different parts of the country but we have no idea where you are located.