Definitely don't smoke when engaged in it, ha, ha.
No, but seriously, metallic reloading requires one to have a number of tools not required for shotshell, and the ability to interpret measurements and weights down to .1 gr and .001".
The most practical and safe approach to reloading is to get your hands on a couple of good instructional reloading books. Read cover to cover until you know and understand what will be on the next page. Data is every where, so a book that contains mostly data is half as important as one that is rich with good instructional material for a brand new reloader. I like Speer and Lyman, and grew up on Speer.
As for the best press for someone approaching reloading for the first time would be a single stage press, IMHO. Always work in batches. In other words, resize in one batch, prime all the cases in one batch, then charge, seat, ect, ect..
A few tips to help you avoid problems.
Verify everything more than once.
Never have more than one powder on the bench, and only the one your working with. In fact this rule applies to all components.
Develop a fail safe approach for every step involved, and you'll avoid serious / catastrophic events. Logging all pertinent information for each load development is critical, IMO. this is very helpful in the verification process.
Never start with max charges, work up from a published minimum charge. And only use reliable published data provided by powder and bullet manufactures.
GS