"which actually turned out to be easier to do than I thought." I find that's very often the way with soldering, what seems hugely daunting and complex actually takes less time to do than you spent mithering about it! The most important lesson I have learned with soldering is: if you drop the iron, don't try to catch it by the end that doesn't have a flex coming out of it...

Don't have at your iron tip with a file, you'll ruin it! I use a damp kitchen sponge scouring pad to scrape off the worst and then re-tin the tip using a paste. See this article:

http://store.curiousinventor.com/guides/how_to_solder/cleantip/
 

Thats certainly a lesson to remember! I must admit that I did managed to catch the end of my thumb on the side of the iron within minutes of first starting, I was so busy checking the alignment of the first side frame on the floor piece I let thumb end and soldering iron briefly meet. It's not the first time, and I'm sure it'll not be the last.  

It won't be! :-) I now just scream "aaargh", hurriedly yank my legs back and let the iron drop to the floor when I fumble it.

The other fun one is holding a part being soldered and having an increasingly desperate internal dialog as to whether the increasing discomfort in your fingers as the part heats up is outweighing your desire to see it correctly soldered... :-)