Nice work! I was thinking that if you center-drilled each shaft and put a pin into them for alignment, it might have helped keep straight when welding, unless the pin would warp from the heat.
Yes. Any assistance to hold them straight is a help. I didn’t even have a drill press so it may have been worse. A metal lathe would be best with both ends in a chuck. Sometimes I can buy things for cheep but I still want to try myself. Thanks for watching and for the comments.