I'm building a portable mill for working on floors, large surfaces and such, how would you tile in any direction? My thought is start in the corner and use a small target double stick taped to the floor, 3 of these will allow me to move the machine up or over and have 2 reference spots to line up for the next cut. I could even dial in flip down locating indicators to make it even faster. Anybody have any experience with this or other thoughts?
If it's feasible, I'd put locating dowel pins at two corners of the machine and make a drilling jig that I use with a green laser level to set the grid. The jig would have two targets on it so that you can see it's colinear to the laser line, and a pin at one end for consistent spacing. I'd consider putting the laser on its own jig that would track along the initial line, allowing you to easily set all the other perpendicular lines with one of the other beams. It might be easier to make the drilling jig the exact same size as the machine itself, though. If you're using less machine travel for each tile than it has in total, so you're not drilling through the pattern, you could even use the machine itself to drill its own locating holes.
You might look up manual indexing with the Handibot large material indexing jig. The info on it is rather limited but it might offer a starting point for a proper plywood indexing jig that would be fairly easy to manipulate.
Handibot® Large Material Indexing Jig I like the concept - a big ruler/straight edge with indents basically!
I like it, a single aluminum straightedge with a few references notched in with my cnc sawstop doubletaped to the floor and a few stackable parallels that plug in like sideways legos to shift it up to the next tile. I would be able to hold tolerances on a huge area limited only by the length of the edge and number of boxes stacked and the best part is no program cycle for locating, just set the mill in the next spot and tap it tight to the fixture. Or a locating dowel on a leg from the next component that would help lock it in.
I would suggest creating two straightedges and a pair of spacer blocks. Set the first straightedge for the initial row and then when you're done, use the spacer blocks to set the second straightedge at the proper offset to continue on with the second row. Then peel the first straightedge to leapfrog the second and keep working your way across the floor. You always have a reference edge taped down that way.
Thats even better, then I would need only 4 components and only one of the spacers need be a box to hold square with the other as a standoff. Only problem would be that the floor will be routered, wet concrete after the first set unless I went long and bridged the worked area.
