| At least in the US there are no regulations specifically stopping you from amateur chemistry. The challenges tend to be: - it’s hard (not impossible) to procure some chemicals because most suppliers will only sell to businesses - there are regulations around safety hazards like storage of flammable liquid in residential area (these are good regulations, I’d rather my neighbor isn’t storing 20 gals of ether for example) - there are regulations around manufacturing explosives (even in tiny quantities) But that said, there is nothing stopping someone from jumping through the needed hoops. Incorporate a business (not very expensive), get a license from the ATF (mostly time to do paperwork and stuff - like buying a machine gun), follow fire regulations. The other option is to just procure chemicals through other products. Naphtha is basically a mixture of hexanes. You can buy a lot of nitrate salts used for food or gardening. It’s not hard to procure metals. |