Alright, it's time to stop messing around and get this lighting squared away.
Ran by Lowe's today, picked up what I intend to use for my quick disconnects.
For wire, I'm using a Marine wire used for electrical harness for something in a boat. I selected the 16/3 for my purposes. Perhaps a bit overkill, but whatever. 16/3 just means 16AWG wire and there's 3 of them wrapped inside an outer insulation. You'll see in one of the upcoming pics.
If you've never done this, here's a quick photo summary. I'll demo one of them, then just repeat for the others.
Unscrew the 3 screws in the face and open 'er up. This is what it looks like inside:
Push your wire through the back piece, separate and strip the ends of the wire, about 1/2"
Now, open each of the 3 clamps, and 1 by 1 insert the appropriate wire and clamp it down. Make sure you clamp the wire, not the insulation, to ensure good contact.
Now, slide the backshell up, screw in the 3 screws in the face and get them secure. This is the trickiest part to the whole thing, cuz you can't see the receiving end of the insert to line up the screws easily inside the backshell. Once you get it, on the other end of the backshell, tighten down the clamp - this clamp is used to make sure the wires don't get pulled from the contacts.
Repeat for the other end and BOOM! You're done!
This do-it-yourself photo summary was made possible by your friends at Aquarium Advice. Please use at your own risk.
lol
