Welcome to the website and enjoyment of reloading. I might suggest you purchase "The ABC's of Reloading" 8th edition which is an excellent guide for new reloaders. I'm going to list the manner in which I reload my ammunition. Others may use a slightly different sequence. Case preparation is singly the most important step in coming up with good/dependable ammo. After I go through the steps,
I'll briefly list the equipment for your consideration.
1. Take the fired casings and put them in a Tumbler filled with cleaning media and a small amount of polish. This should clean up the outside and inside of the empty casings. I usually clean 50 - 100 casings at a time, although any tumbler can clean up to 250 casings at a time. I run my tumbler for 90 minutes. Remember to run the tumbler for about 5 - 10 minutes WITHOUT the casings when adding polish so the polish mixes in well with the media and doesn't get stuck inside the casings which must be clear and free of any debris or else you could break or bend decapping pins/rods on your dies when resizing.
2. Next comes resizing, whether only Neck sizing or Full length resizing. Each casing must be lubed for easier resizing. I use Imperial Resizing wax and a mixture made by Imperial of graphite that lubes the inside of the neck for for the neck resizing ball to go in and out during resizing. Expect some resistance when yopu pull down the lever to resize, but not to the point where you really have to bear down on the lever. Using too much strength could easily get your casing stuck inside the die if there is something wrong (like media struck inside the casing). You need only run your index finger across the surface of the lube once and it doesn't take much to run over the entire surface of the casing (less the head of the casing). Follow the instructions provided with the dies as to the settings on the press. This step with both resize and removed the old primers. Some people teach to lube all you casings first and then resize them. I lube once and resize it next. I also take the newly resized casing and load it into the rifle to make sure I've corectly resized the casing for the breach of my rifle. I have one rifle, that no matter what ammo I shoot in her, she requires a full length resizing after the casing has been fired or else the bolt will not close. She's just a cantancerous 22-250 who never heard the general rule that if you shoot your ammo ONLY through one rifle, you need only neck resize and not full body resize. Typical SHE! BTW, if the bolt won't close, you'll have to resize again and turn down on the die about about 1/8 turn each time until you can get the casing resized to where the rifle will accept it. Rarely will a difference occur in the setting between what the setting by bthe die manufacturer calls for AND having to turn the die down further to get to whet you can close the bolt. But it does happen.
3. Next comes measuring the length of the casing with a caliper. I have both types of calipers, digital and dial, but much prefer the digital. Don't be surprised if you need to trim the casing to bring it to within the "trim to" specification as listed in the reloading manual you are using. Do not confuse the trim length with tha OAL (Overall
length).
4. Trim each casing and remeasure to make sure each and every casing is the same.
5. Chamferring and deburring comes next. This is where you prepare the casing for accepting the bullet later and remove any burrs from the casing. Included in this step is where you MUST clean out the primer cup of the casing and deburr the flash hole so that the new primer can evenly ignite the gunpowder. Having the right tools is important, but these tools don't have to be fancy or expensive, Those made by Lee are very effective and are inexpensive.
6. Now comes the installation of the new primer. Whatever primers you decide on, you can use either your press or a hand held primer loader. Lee again makes an inexpensive hand held primer that costs like $14.94 or less. Remember to also buy the casing holder made by Lee that holds the shell in place. The shell holder in your press WILL NOT WORK IN THE LEE HAND HELD PRIMER. I have both the Lee and the RCBS hand held primer and mostly use the RCBS one, but it costs around $35 - $45 new. In the RCBS model you CAN use the same shell holder as in your press.
7. Powder measuring and installation. This again is up to you as whether you use a manual scale vs an electronic scale. I use an electronic scale for more precise measuring of powder grains.
8. Bullet installation is the final step of the reloading process. You will use your Bullet Installer Die and once you set the bullet depth, all the rest of the bullets SHOULD be set to the same depth. Now it doesn't take a great deal of strength or lever power. In fact, your greatest resistence will be felt, by far, in resizing. I also take the first and every fifth casing thereafter and load it into my rifle to make sure the bolt closes without any resistance and that tells me I've got the resizing and OAL down correctly for my rifle.
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Now comes the part of the equipment. Most everything I get I buy from MidwayUSA, Cabelas, or Midsouth Reloading. I buy my powder locally to avid having to pay that aweful HAZ MAT fee when shipping commerically. Take a look at their websites for the deburring tools. Tumblers are another issue and you need not get the fanciest and most expensive tumbler to get by. I think mine cost me $45 at Cabelas.
Now as to the lathe you spoke about. Lee again makes a very inexpensive shell trimmer/holder combo that you MIGHT be able to adapt to your lathe. The chuck on your lathe will determine that. You can use the Lee trimmer/shell holder combo in a simple vise that is attached to your bench or table. Again just remember to measure each of your casings and get them as close as possible. I use a Redding 2400 Trimmer that has a mic on it so I know each shell casing is exactly the same size. But then I shoot for accuracy at targets and don't hunt much.
Hope that gives you the run down you were looking for. But DO BUY "The ABC's of Reloading" that has pictures as well as a detailed and understandable explanation of reloading. I think I paid like $22.95 for my copy and I refer to it frequently when running into problems or when I have a question. Great book and very helpful.
Feel free to hollar or send me a "PM" anytime if you get stuck or need help. And there is a wealth of knowledge and info up here so don't be shy in asking these guys questions. Remember, the only dumb question is the one that isn't asked.
Good luck with your reloading and again, welcome aboard.
