The contribution presents the design of the home-made equipment for preparation of starting material for crystal growth. It is composed of two parts: a resistance furnace with two sections for direct synthesis of a material from iodine and lead and a controlled resistance furnace with a moving heating element for zone purification. The sections are run at different temperatures due to different physical properties of both the components. In zone purification the outer part of furnace is preheated to 200 °C, while the melting zone is kept at 420 °C (above the melting point of the material) with a moving heating element. The equipment can be modified for preparation of other materials using similar technological processes.