A small scale centrifugal oil separator consisted of two concentric tubes was fabricated for spilt oil recovery. With speed control of the inner tube, its performance of oil separation was investigated. Oil-water mixture is separated by forced vortex motion with the rotating inner tube. Velocity and pressure distributions in the tubes were calculated. Control of rotating speed, which is the most influencing parameter, showed an optimum value 946rpm corresponding to the acceleration of 20g at the inner tube surface. Separation performance was suddenly deteriorated at rotating speed higher than 1200rpm.