2) The PCB Should have lots of groundplane.

3) The PCB Should have plated thru holes.

4) Use Wire Wrap interconnections.

5) Only 30 Ga., kynar insulated, WW Wire.

6) The Sockets should be of the Machined-Pin, Wire Wrap types.

7) All Components (except bypass capacitors & Voltage Regulator components--components that will never change their required value) should be "plugged" into the same type of sockets and their position should be as close to the other components they are connected to.

8) Once completed, Shorten (cut) the WW Pins.

9) Power Supplies: either "Hard Wired" to the circuit of interest, Or plugable using protection.

10) When dealing with multiple wires as in a bus, always seperate them --Never "Bundle."

11) Never plug & unplug your circuit from the powersupply while it is ON. Disconnect the power supply from the Mains (120 VAC).

12) Always make perminent connections to the powersupply:

13) Always Power Down--and wait n seconds--before pluging in ANY component.

13 a.) Always, FIRST make electical contact with the circuit board's COMMON (grabing circuit's Grd. with the other hand) before plugging in any Semiconductor device.

2) Never Solder wires (except for Bypass capacitors & power supplies).: Use Wire Wrap.

3) Never use bare "Perf-Boards" that have no copper layer(s) or plated thru holes.

4) Never use "Hand" wire Wrap tools--always use WW Guns!

5) Never use any Socket that isn't Machined-Pin.

6) Never use etched or milled PCBs for your very First prototype board.

8) Never use excessive wire length.

9)Never leave WW sockets with unnecessary pin length.

10) Never run many wires(e.g, digital bus) close togather--Never "Bundle" them.

11) Never plug & unplug your circuit from the powersupply while it is ON.

12) Never make "Temporary (e.g., aligator clips) connections to the powersupply: Always make them perminent.

13) Never plug in any device to a circuit while it is powered!

14 a.) Never plug in a Semiconductor device without FIRST making electical contact with the circuit board's COMMON (grabing circuit's Grd. with the other hand).

2)_ Use a wet sponge to clean the tip 

3)_ Heat the pieces to be soldered together hot enough to melt the solder. Of course melting solder on to those pieces will help to speed up this heating process. --see next step

4)_ In one simultaneous motion: as you apply the solder to the "joint" use the iron to help melt the solder and release the rosin flux (in the solder core) to allow 'wetting'  action of the molten solder to FLOW into the joint; it should 'wick' into the joint. 

5)_ If you have done it correctly, the soldered joint will SHINE and appear as if it has flowed; as opposed to beading up. The surface tension of the melted solder is what we are talking about--just like water. Until the beading breaks and flows, the soldering operation is not complete.
 

The white nylon proto-boards are constructed for ease and speed of use; however they
don't allow for adequate bypassing of individual devices--there is too much stray
inductance, negating most of the bypass capacitor's usefulness.
Remember, a 555 has transistors in it capable of generating rise and fall times in the
nanoseconds (Ft ~ 200 MHz).
Also the proto-board uses connectors (wire receiving sockets) that are daisy-chained and
close together: all adding parasitics--inductive and capacitive--generating crosstalk
(unwanted feedback, etc.) and causing circuit instability.

The resulting circuit design that one "made to work" on the proto-board, can end up not
working when committed to the final PCB--the parasitics are gone.
Likewise, a good design will not work as intended, no matter what you do to the circuit.

If the rules (data sheet) aren't followed you can have some pretty weird things
happening.