The base looks great. I once had one repaired at a welding shop, the guy said he put in an oven and heated it to 500 degrees before mig welding. I once had an Erie with two cracks in it's base. I used a cheap 120v flux core wire welder turned all the way up. I welded about one inch, and while the metal was still glowing bright orange, I wrapped it tightly in an old terry cloth towel until it cooled. I repeated the process until both cracks were filled. It took a while, but it worked fine.