Heya Mogulers, this build will show you how to whip together an easy to use, portable, in-line dimmer for any tungsten or incandescent lights you use in your filmmaking.

So let's get started!

first off, you're going to need the following items:

A one foot or so length of 18 ga. lamp wire, a single-pole 600 Watt rotary dimmer, a "quick-on" male plug, a "quick-on" female receptacle, a roll of electrical tape, and something that will snip wire (in all honesty, a pair of scissors or a knife can accomplish this).

First, snip off the green (brown if you're in the UK) ground ("earth", if you're in the UK) wire from the dimmer. Then grab the lamp cord and split it apart:

Into two seperate wires. You're only going to need one for this build.

Now clip the pre-stripped ends off the dimmer's two black wires:

And bend the wires out so they're in a straight line, line up your single length of lamp wire and cut it to match the length of the outstretched dimmer leads.

Now grab the male "quick-on" connector, squeeze the prongs together and pull out the guts, spread the prongs apart like you see below, and slide one end of the lamp wire and one of the dimmer leads through the plug body. Then slip both wires into the plug guts, making sure that they bottom out and are fully inserted.

Now squeeze the blades together so the little tiny prongs sticking inward towards their bases can peirce through the insulation and make contact with the wire inside. Then cram the guts back into the housing. Don't be afraid to use a little force to get it to fit.

Now open the female receptacle by unlatching the little metal clip with your fingernail and place the ends of the other two wires into the bed below the insulation peircing prongs. Place the wires so that they're just barely inside the open end. Clamp it down until the litlle metal clip snaps back into place.

It should now look like this:

So grab your electrical tape and cut off a small piece to cover the open end of the "Quick-on" receptacle like so:

Now remove the dimmer knob and start wrapping the whole dang thing with electrical tape, being sure to cover every little bit of metal and the wires:

When you're done it should look like this:

You can use this little thing on any incandescent light (clamp-lamps, table lamps, those super-bright 500 Watt shop lights you have that are sometimes just way too bright) you might need to dim. Use it for dialing in your backlight or fill, use it for dimming a table lamp next to an actor so the entire lampshade isn't all blown out, use it for whenever you might want to cut down the light.

Have fun shooting!