Charged particles are emitted when materials undergo tribological interactions, plastic deformation, and failure. In machining, plastic deformation and shearing of work piece material takes place continuously along with intense tool-chip rubbing contact interactions; hence, the emission of charged particles can be expected. In this work, an in-situ sensor has been developed to capture the emitted positive (positive ion) and negative (electron and negative ion) charged particles in real-time in an orthogonal machining process at atmospheric conditions without the use of coolant. The sensor consists of a Faraday plate, mounted on the flank face of the cutting tool, to collect the emitted ions and the intensity of emissions is measured with an electrometer. Positively and negatively charged particles are measured separately by providing suitable bias voltage supply to the Faraday plate. Ion emissions are measured during machining of three different work piece materials (mild steel, copper, and stainless steel) using a carbide cutting tool. The experimental results show a strong correlation between the emission intensity and the variation in machining parameters and material properties. Increasing material removal rate increases the intensity of charged particle emissions because of the increase in volume of material undergoing shear, fracture, and deformation. It is found that emission intensity is directly proportional to the resistivity and strength of workpiece material. Charged particles emission intensity is found to be sensitive to the machining conditions which enables the use of this sensor as an alternate method of condition monitoring. © 2019 by ASME.