Intro to soldering and building a 5v power supply

Today we learned the correct way to solder components to a circuit board. As seen in the picture below, the end result should be shiny not dull, the solder should be in the shape of a volcano, and the leads should extend slightly above the solder.

 Next we cut long wires into leads by stripping off the ends about 3/4 of an inch. After cutting the leads we then spliced 4 sets by soldering them in the middle. The solder should also be shiny and coat the entire connection.

After mastering the splicing technique, we cut the end off a 5V phone charger and spliced in our own leads. Once the leads were spliced we used heat shrink on the soldered area to prevent shorting.