Abstract: In the realm of machine tool operation, effective condition monitoring holds predominant importance to ensure operational reliability and safety. Leveraging deep learning methodologies, particularly convolutional neural networks (CNN), for defect identification has gained significant attention. However, inherent challenges persist, including the extraction of salient features and potential information loss while extracting the features from raw vibration signals. In response, this study proposes an intelligent approach for condition monitoring in machine tools, integrating short-time Fourier transform and convolutional neural networks (STFT-CNN). The process entails using STFT to convert one-dimensional vibration signals into time-frequency pictures, which are then fed into the STFT-CNN model to acquire and identify fault features. Furthermore, the study explores optimizing STFT parameters, such as window type, window width, and translation overlap width, across various typical window functions to improve the effectiveness of the transformation process. Within the STFT-CNN model, the utilization of stacked double convolutional layers aims to augment the model's nonlinear expression capacity, thereby facilitating robust fault diagnosis capabilities in machine tool condition monitoring applications