Hello,

 

I was wondering, could you make a tripod style anvil stand for a 242 pound anvil, with  traintrack for legs and a really really heavy plate ?

I know, it would get really heavy, but it isn't a movable stand anyways, and I have a crane to move it around.

bad idea given that it's hard steel and not plain mild steel ?

 

mvg; bart

My only concern would be cracking in the HAZ during welding. Other than that, I'm a big fan of the steel tripod.

That it's hard is not a problem *if* you know how to weld high carbon steels.

Preheat is ideal, also bead matching for thickness.. In other words proper  wet in, bead profile and such.  if the metal is 1/2" thick, the bead height should be 1/2" thick.. I'm not explaining very well, but ideally the bead toes need to be the same thickness and width as the parent metal as is the varying sizes.. 1/4 is that thick 1/4" but the 1/2" leg is 1/2".. 

When welding thicker materials the prep and weld bead layouts need more attention anyhow, 

On my 500amp mig machine I can cover a pretty large variety of metal thicknesses in one pass, but with a smaller unit multi pass welds need be done. 
 

Depending on your situation, I'd consider mounting it permanently on a stump set in the ground. In my opinion a stump 2' or so in the ground is the best stand for a permanent situation.

If you need to move it, rr track is overkill for a 242# anvil. 1/4" angle, 3 or 4 legs, will work fine.