For a lot of reasons, both political and economic, my best friend and I have decided to start reloading. We will set up in my garage and split the costs down the middle. Due to the cost and limited availability we want to start with .380 and 38/357. We will add 40, 45 and 9mm eventually but neither of us are hunters and won't be loading any rifle rounds. We simply want the reloads for target shooting. Defense rounds will continue to come out of box made by folks who know a lot more than we ever will.

While my first and only experience with Midway USA was not a happy one they seem to be the big dog in this area, also Cabella's has been mentioned as another source for equipment and supplies. So here are few questions:

What equipment do we need to get started? While our needs are simpler than most we know that we definitely want a high quality digital scale. Can someone enumerate the additional proper equipment, what it should cost and what we can expect?
What sort of net cost (not the equipment, but the cost per box of reloads), can we reasonably expect?
What sort of time frame can two reasonably intelligent (I refer to Paul who is a commercial airline pilot and not myself here), guys expect to produce a box of reloads?
What basic safety tips would you offer a couple of nubies?

This is my first visit to this portion of the board but have no doubt some of you will take pity on our admitted ignorance and fill in a few of the blanks. Thanks in advance for all of the good info that will surely flow. (o;