Wow... I am WAY late to the party!
KJ - an awesome job with your pictures and write up! Turns out that I was wrong in another thread where I stated that I was the only one epoxying the emitter on as the last step. Oops. After reading through this, and Don's original notes... I *still* can't see a significant (any?) advantage to the exterior ground process! Inside is definitely the way to go for me! I use a bare wire, and do the deeper-to-the-inside notch, and go about my business. NO worry about orientation, or about shorting at the anode.
These things are always so much fun for me to build because it seems that no matter how many I do, I'm still amazed when they light up at the end of the process. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif