I know there is an interest in biohacking alternative testing methods around these parts so I figured I would make a thread for anyone who may want to do research at home.
What you will need to get started:
An incubator
A microscope
Growth media
Something to sterilize your growth media
Plates
Microscope slides and covers
Staining kits
Immersion oil
For the incubator you can buy one new on Amazon or used on ebay or you could even make your own. They are not difficult to build and there are plenty of resources online.
If you want to culture bacteria you are going to need a microscope with 1000x magnification power and for that you are going to need a 100x oil immersion lense. You need to buy it new and you need to treat it with care. The lenses scratch easily and must be cleaned with Kim wipes. If you are only going to be working with fungi then you only need to go up to a 400x lense.
For growth media you are going to want to use agar agar in most cases. You can find it as an vegetarian thickener in organic grocery stores or you can buy it on Amazon. If you aren't buying lab grade you will need to sterilize your media before using it. You can also use guar gum as an alternative to agar but it is not as firm as agar and may require additional thickeners like starch. Be warned that guar gum can be eaten by some microbes and starch can be eaten by many microbes so for more controlled expirements you should use agar.
To sterilize your media an autoclave works best, but those are expensive and a pressure cooker will work to sterilize your equipment in most cases and in a pinch you can even microwave, but don't expect the same results as an autoclave.
For your plates you can easily buy them on Amazon or you can use polypropylene containers from the grocery store. They have to be polypropylene because they need to survive the autoclave.
Slides and covers can be purchased on Amazon or cannibalized form a child's microscope kit at Walmart if you need them in a hurry.
Staining kits will most likely need to be purchased online. The only two staining reagents that can be found in stores are methylene blue (pharmacy) and malachite green (aquarium supply). For bacteria you will find gram stains, acid fast stains, and capsule stains will get you pretty far, but there are all kinds of staining techniques you can use in your projects.
It is best to buy immersion oil online, but anis oil, clove oil, and ceder wood oil will all work in a pinch. Be sure to clean you lense every time especially if you choose to use an over the counter alternative. You will ruin your lense if you don't clean it.
Resources
https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/MicrobeWiki
https://www.the-odin.com/
https://diybio.org/
Have fun expirementing and please don't do anything stupid.