Picked up a “handy helper” from Fry’s today since I knew I wouldn’t be able to try and hold everything in place while soldering the first of the lights together, definitely a worthwhile buy. Next, I need to sort out a better place to solder, cause just doing this first assembly has left my back hurting from leaning over the garage workbench.

Those issues aside, the soldering of the first light went well enough. I’ll try to get the wiring and resistors in place tomorrow night so I can do an official test. I’m also trying to figure out the best material to “coat” the backside of the boards with to protect the solder and keep it clean and dry. I’m thinking some high-temp silicone we picked up from Grainger for work recently may be the ticket. That won’t go on until I’ve thoroughly tested the lighting, as I really don’t want to have to try and remove the stuff after finding an issue. The LED’s all seemed to be rather secure after I put a drop of solder on each leg, and that combined with bending over the legs to hold them in place looks like I will get good results if my wiring holds up.