Single-particle analysis (SPA) is a cryo-Transmission Electron Microscopy (cryo-TEM) technique used to determine the structure of amorphous proteins from roughly tens of thousands of cryogenically frozen, well-dispersed, homogeneous, randomly-oriented particles. There have been several software and hardware upgrades available in recent years that promised affordable SPA capable of bringing the technique ‘to the people’ in an effort to release the pressure from larger cryo-EM facilities and make SPA more widely available to all structural biologists. The first cryo-TEM in Western Australia was commissioned in 2022 at the Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation, and Analysis at the University of Western Australia supported by federal (NCRIS), state and university funding. Here we present our journey with a modern affordable side-entry holder cold field emission TEM fitted with a direct electron detector.