Haha, I got my FIRST ever PIC programming kit (Velleman K8048) 2 days ago. I was SO desperate to get it all soldered together and working, i bought a cheap/nasty souldering iron, and plumbers solder!!! It's like 7mm thick! Managed to soulder everything (278 solder points, according the manual its only for experienced solder-ers), and it all works!
God knows how, maybe I'll take a picture of the solder-side of my PCB for you to laugh at.
It's awful! (But works!).
Blueprint.