In milling, cutting tool ins directly attached to spindle and this tells that spindle can provide very useful information on the cutting tool condition such as wear or breakage. Since spindle is rotating at a high speed, measuring spindle velocity using a noncontacting measurement system gives the best information which can be obtained. Due to the force applied to spindle through cutting tool, velocity of spindle changes. And any change in cutting tool condition affects cutting force and consequently spindle vibration. With the intent of continuously monitoring cutting tool condition in intermittent machining operations in a benign manner, a noncontacting velocity measurement system using a laser Doppler velocimeter was assembled to measure spindle torsional vibration. Spindle vibration was measured and analysis of it in the frequency domain yielded a measure which corresponded to amount of cutting tool wear in milling.