The accuracy of machine tools is affected to a large extent by the behavior of the system's joints. In this paper the equivalent stiffness approach identifies and calculates the contribution of joint error sources to the total deviation measured between toolholder and workpiece under loaded conditions. The force–deviation functions are measured at different locations in the machine workspace. Joint deviations are then computed and compared with results obtained from measurements. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed method in determining joint errors in machines.