The major needs in machining are high material removal rate, good work surface finish and low tool wear. However, machining process often encounter tools wear problem which leads to increased product cost and poor quality. The aim of the study is to determine the effects of surface roughness and temperature of the cutting fluids on high-speed steel tool. High-speed steel (HSS) cutting tool was used on Colchester triumph space bed Centre lathe to work on a mild steel using cutting fluid such as soluble oil, liquid soap, and engine oil. The feed rate, spindle speed and depth of cut of the mild steel work piece were kept constant. The surface coarseness and temperature of the machine was examined with the three types of cutting fluid used. This result indicated that among the three cutting fluids used in the study, the liquid soap has the best temperature reduction on the chips (38.02℃), tool tip (40.73 oC), and the workpiece (40.03 oC); while soluble oil cutting fluid had a good surface finished of 0.8 mm, thus makes it more desirable cutting fluid in machining operation.