A number of excellent descriptions of the techniques related to peptide chain assembly have already been published. These processes are also described in the operator manuals supplied by the peptide synthesis instrument manufacturers. Accordingly, the treatment of the subject presented here has been kept brief in order to provide more space in this volume for those topics not covered in detail in other publications of this type. The protocols have been written as they would be carried out using a manual peptide synthesis vessel. Whilst it is appreciated that most scientists preparing peptides will be using automated peptide synthesizers, it is not possible, given the wide variation in operating procedures, to describe how such methods may be applied to individual instruments. Particular emphasis has been given here to those operations which are typically carried out off-instrument, such as first residue attachment and peptide-resin cleavage. The operations described in this chapter can be carried out in a purpose-built peptide synthesis vessel or in a sintered glass funnel fitted with a three-way stopcock. The operation of the system is extremely simple: solvents are added from the top of the vessel, ensuring any resin adhering to the sides is rinsed down into the resin bed; the resin bed is agitated by setting the tap to position 1 to allow flow of nitrogen to the reaction vessel; solvents and reagents are removed by setting the tap to position 2 to connect the vessel to the vacuum. The use of such vessels has previously been described in detail. Peptide synthesis resins are extremely fragile and the beads, if wrongly handled, can easily fracture, leading to the generation of fines which can block reaction vessel filter-frits and solvent lines. It is particularly important that the correct method is used for mixing the resin and soluble reactants. Polystyrene-based supports are best agitated by bubbling an inert gas through the resin bed, or by shaking or vortexing the reaction vessel. Whilst all of these approaches are employed in commercial synthesizers, gas-bubbling and shaking are the most appropriate for use in manual synthesis.