This paper reports on the effect of coolant temperature on machining of high carbon steels. The development of a cooling system to reduce the temperature of water soluble coolant to 7.9oC from ambient temperature was employed in this work to improve the machining performance. The experiments were performed using cooled and ambient temperatures by employing Taguchi L18 orthogonal array to design the experimental runs. The cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut were the machining parameters used; while the tool-work piece interface temperature was monitored using a digital thermometer with k-type thermocouple wire. The selected control factors are material removal rate and surface roughness. The experimental results were analyzed using Minitab 16. The main effects and percentage contributions of various parameters affecting surface roughness and material removal rate were discussed, and the optimal cutting conditions were determined. It was observed that surface finish improved by 65% with the use of the developed cooled system. The reduction in coolant temperature played a vital role in improving surface finish during machining high carbon steels.