Requirements for flexible manufacturing have been increasing in the last years. In order to insure effective operation of expansive manufacturing equipment, which has to run automatically and unattended, tool monitoring is important. Therefore, the essential problem to be overcome to achieve the full potential of unmanned machining is the development of effective and reliable sensors system to monitor the process and corrective actions in case abnormal operation. The ultimate goal of the development of such production equipment is to enhance the overall economic of the manufacturing process. Even when there are at present many monitoring systems commercially available in the market for turning processes, serious difficulties still remain to be solved to apply monitoring systems successfully in machining centres. Being these difficulties mainly related with the limited accessibility to the rotating tool for sensing purposes in tool driven machining processes. Therefore, the primary objective of this paper assess the feasibility of using force signal analysis as means for monitoring tool condition in drilling