I found this on another discussion board - it's from someone that knows what
they're talking about (Lyn Mangiameli):

"With respect to safety, determine your speed based on the maximum diameter
of your turning. A good rule of thumb is the one (to my knowledge) first
established by Dale Nish: Diameter times RPM should equal 6000-9000 rpm (D x
RPM = 6000-9000 RPM). For example, a 20 inch bowl turned at 400 rpm is going
to give a figure of 8000, while a 10 inch bowl turned at 800 rpm will give
the same figure. Generally I'd suggest you shoot for something closer to the
lower 6000 rpm figure. Put another way, don't seek to always go the speed
limit, but instead shoot for something closer to 80% of your speed limit,
this gives you some margin for error."

So, in your case, you can probably safely turn from 3,000-4,500 RPM. This
is likely the maximum range of most lathes (but, this is coming from a
newbie, so I could/likely be wrong). You probably know that it is typical
to rough turn slower and then increase speed to give a smoother finish as
your diameters decrease (or at least that's the way I think about it).

Hope this helps,

Mike


"buck" wrote in message
vers.com...
What would be a good RPM range for rough turning a 2" square of walnut 24
inches long?
-TIA