If you can find an automotive machine shop with a "submerged arc" welder, the kind that's used to build up crankshaft journals, it would create less distortion of the shaft than going after it with a stick or MIG welder.
Jerry

"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln
Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt!
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway
Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!