Great thread! Lots of great info here. Just a quick $.02 on lighting and magnifying for soldering and anything else. The better half is a huge crafter and after watching me struggle a little she got me an Ott light with a 1x, 5x and 10x magnifier. Similar to this - http://products.ottlite.com/p-294-13w-craft-organizer.aspx#Description
I'm 50 with bad eyes and colorblindness. This thing helps a ton. I can actually see the color bands on resistors now and the 10x is GREAT for inspecting solder joints and reading numbers on transistors.