In this research, a vision system for detecting breakages of small-diameter taps, which are rarely detected by the indirect in-process monitoring methods such as acoustic emission, cutting torque and motor current, was developed. Two HMI (Human Machine Interface) programs to embed the developed vision system into a Siemens open architecture controller, 840D, were developed. They are placed in sub-windows of the main window of the 840D and can be activated or deactivated either by a softkey on the operating panel or the M code in the NC part program. In the event that any type of tool breakage is detected, the HMI program issues a command for an automatic tool change or sends an alarm signal to the NC kernel. An evaluation test in a high-speed tapping machine showed that the developed vision system was successful in detecting breakages of small-diameter taps up to M1.