In order to make best use of NC machine tools with minimal labor costs, they need to be in operation 24 hours a day without being attended by human operators except for setup and tool changes. Thus, unattended machining is becoming a dream of every modern machine shop. However, without a proper mechanism for real-time monitoring of the machining processes, unattended machine could lead to a disaster. Investigated in this paper are ways to using PC camera as a real-time monitoring system for unattended NC milling operations. This study defined five machining states READY, NORMAL MACHINING, ABNORMAL MACHINING, COLLISION and END-OF-MACHINING and modeled them with DEVS (discrete event system) formalism. An image change detection algorithm has been developed to detect the table movements and a flame and smoke detection algorithm to detect unstable cutting process. Spindle on/off and cutting status could be successfully detected from the sound signals. Initial experimentation shows that the PC camera could be used as a reliable monitoring system for unattended NC machining.