[misfit41]

I am not sure alum is worth the extra cost since the weight diff is nill on such a short shaft,and steel does a much better job of dynamic balancing,I do like the cool factor of aluminum however.
I agree with not short cutting,but when your talking about a piece of tubing with a yoke tapped in each end ,then welded ,it dosent take a high end custom fab shop to do that,any good machine shop can do it,I have done several myself with good luck in highly abusive applications {dirt cars},the only way it can be unbalanced is the weld being inconsistant,since the tubing and yokes are 0 balanced already.
The odds of breaking a u bolt,or joint are much greater than twisting a drive shaft.
Hapy New Year,,Tim K