I have a 60" Leclerc floor loom that currently has the shadow-weave from the LotR cloaks on it, my next goal is to weave something in the MacPherson Dress tartan. It's actually rather pleasent to weave a tartan- I don't need to warp the full width!

As for the discussion of 8 vs 4 shafts, if you ahve a smaller width loom (30 inches) but with 8 shafts, you can double-weave a tartan, giving you a 50 or 60 inch woven width. However, from what tartans I've looked at you don't seem to need more than 4 for any of them. Good luck!