I believe my tumbler was somewhere around $60 and comes with 2 size bowls and a "sifter" top which is basically useless. You put some kind of abrasive cleaning media such as corn cob or walnut, put the cases in, and turn it on. And leave the room because it is kind of loud. The tumbler does a good job of cleaning the grit and powder residue off the cases but to sift the cases to remove the media, I use a spaghetti strainer. Works great and completely clears out the media after cleaning.

Next I de-cap the spent primers in all cases to be loaded by using the press to insert them in the de-capping die. I put a large box underneath the press to catch the spent primers.

I then prime the cases with a Lee Auto Hand Primer which holds about 100 large or small primers. A bullet is placed in the holder, the handle squeezed, primer inserted, bullet pulled out, new primer falls into place. It's quick and you can check each one quickly as you go.

Next is to charge the cases with a pre-determined amount of powder that is set up in your Lee Auto Powder Measure and die. The measure fits into a die, the bullet is raised into the die triggering the release mechanism of the measure releasing the powder into the case. This movement also sizes the case and flares the case mouth to receive the bullet. I do about 50 at a time and check each load with a flashlight before going on to the next step.

Next, the case and bullet are put into the press and raised into the bullet seating die. You will have set the die to seat the bullet at a determined depth and every bullet will be seated the same.

Finally, with some bullets it pays to put it through a final case sizing and crimp die to pull the entire bullet down to uniform size. This eliminates the possibility of a bulged load that could lead to jamming or other more serious failure. I size all my .40 caliber bullets after seating.

Now through all this you have to have loading data for cases, powder, primer, bullet weight, bullet composition, etc. That's not all as complicated as it sounds or as complicated as some people make it. I'll give some basic explanations on the pages to come.

Next: The components of reloading - UNDER CONSTRUCTION