The achievable machining accuracy depends upon the level of the micro-engineering, and the dimensional tolerances in the order of 10 nm and surface roughness in the order of 1 nm are the accuracy targets to achieved today. Such requirements cannot be satisfied by the conventional machining processes. Single point diamond turning is one of the new techniques which can produce the parts with such accuracy limits. The aims of this thesis are to get a better understanding of the complex cutting forces. A cutting model for describing the influence of cutting conditions (cutting speed, feedrate and depth of cut), material properties of the workpiece and tool geometry has been proposed after estimating the two cutting force models-the Recht model and the Dautzenberg model. The experiments with Al-alloy workpieces, which have been carried out in order to estimate the models, show that the proposed model in this thesis is better than the two models. As the depth of cut and feedrate are increased in the operations settings (depth of cut 8-100$mu{m}$, feedrate 8-140$mu{m}$/rev, and cutting speed 8 m/sec), the relation of dimensionless cutting forces from experiments are similar to the proposed model. With the undeformed chip area of $30-80{ imes}10^{2}$mu{m}^2$, the experimental cutting forces accord with the force prediction.