Dean,
You can get by with using glass canning jars, used hotplate a second hand corning casserole dish, Pyrex coffee pots, used slow cooker crock pot and things like that, so if you educate yourself you can start with a very low budget, and acquire a nice lab as you wish, I still use a lot of canning jars, household equipment, and plastic buckets, I have bought some nice lab glass but have not used them yet (I guess I am silly I would hate to get them dirty or break them).
Memory fingers are a good material to learn on, removing the gold foil using copper II chloride leach (also called acid peroxide, AP, or HCl/H2O2), the washed gold foils can be dissolved in HCl/sodium hypochlorite (bleach), and precipitated using sodium metabisulfite (wine bottle sterilizer or certain brands of stump remover).
Hokes book in the look in the book section is not only a good read, but is just about a requirement to success.
Dealing with waste can help you legally treat your waste, and the safety section will help you get started learning how to work safely, both in safety section.
LazerSteve and others here have good information on their Website's tutorials, video's, and other information.
Reading the guide to the forum, general reaction list and welcome to new members is also a must read.
Welcome to the best place to learn recovery and refining valuable metals.
