[troypiggo (Troy)]

I'm thinking about building a box for my gear, and want to put a light in the lid of it to make it easier to find things in the dark. I was thinking that it'd be good to have some sort of variable power so can do a dim light and more powerful if needed. Maybe have 8 LEDs, and the switch can either turn on 4 or 8 or something like that.

Now I am a total electronics noobie. I have no idea what sort of LEDs to get, how many will be enough. Could anyone point me in the right direction of a website for a howto, and/or give me a shopping list of what I'll need. Because I'm such a noobie, you'll need to take it back to basics - LEDs, resistors, what do I mount them on, what type of soldering iron do I need, what's a solder sucker and do I need one? Thanks for your patience.