Use of the high frequency motor spindles are increasing for the high speed machine tools recently. The important problem in the high speed spindles is to reduce and minimize the thermal effect by the motor and ball hearings. Thermal characteristics according to the bearing preload and spindle cooling are studied for the spindle with the oil mist lubrication and high frequency motor. Temperature distribution and thermal displacement according to the spindle speed, preload and flow rate are measured. Temperature distribution and thermal displacement of the high speed spindle system can be estimated reasonably by using the three dimensional model through the finite element method. The results of analysis are compared with the measured data. This study supports thermal optimization and find out more effective cooling condition. This paper show that the suitable preload and spindle cooling are very effective to minimize the thermal effect by the motor and ball bearings.