I have been thinking along the lines of a lathe rev counter and have thought of an electronic bicycle speedometer as I have used one on a wind speed indicator. I have tried this experimentally and it could work but there is quite a bit of calculating and setting that will have to be done, like determining the best wheel circumference to use (small would be better and the idea might only really work on slower lathes - Myford ML 7) I will come back on any further experiments or add to other trials that crop up here. Thanks for getting this thread going Captainleeward.