[slodave]

I build my own battery packs for my R/C glider. It's not as easy as just soldering on leads. You can easily destroy a cell by keeping the soldering gun on the contact points too long. Your typical Radio Shack soldering iron won't cut it.

You also have to be careful not to short out a cell - I just did this and caught it just before the battery caught fire.

If you decide to give it a try, practice on a dead set of batteries.

One more thing. Battery pack batteries do not have the nipple like traditional store bought rechargeables and probably would not fit in the plastic housing. You need to order special batteries.