Abstract: The wear condition of a milling tool is determined by detecting vibrations of the milling tool and a metal workpiece and generating wavelet coefficients which are utilized to evaluate the wear condition of the workpiece. The vibrations are detected at several locations along the metal workpiece or upon a different workpiece under comparable conditions and evaluating workpiece wear on the basis of changes in wear condition parameters at different locations and/or comparable cutting engagement between the milling tool and similar or different workpieces.

Abstract: In a method for monitoring the wear condition of a tool (2) during machining of a metal workpiece (4) by means of a machine tool (1) by detecting measuring signals generated during the machining process with the aid of at least one sensor (6) and by transforming said measuring signals detected by said sensor (6) into wavelet coefficients by means of a wavelet function, wherein the resultant wavelet coefficients are used for calculating wear condition parameters for the tool (2), it is provided that the vibrations, which are generated during the machining process, of a vibration system comprising at least the tool (2) and the metal workpiece (4) are detected by at least one vibration sensor (6).