Thank you everyone for the great help. It may seem like it but I'm not trying to cut corners only learn the who what and why things are done. I'll end up building a PicKit 2 but I wanted to try some others too for more practice and learning experience.
What if I just put the 12v wall wart directly to the Vpp? Since TxD turns on the Vpp and Vdd at the same time, can Vpp be on at all times during read/write operations? Or do they have to be applied at the same time?
Colins55, I hear you on that one. I can't remember what chips I use to use but since I switched to the 628a's they wont program on a standard JDM.