Have you ever picked up your favorite set of headphones, only to find that the dog has chewed through the cord? You get that sinking feeling, knowing that this expensive piece of hardware has been rendered useless because a couple pieces of copper aren’t touching anymore. Thankfully, such things aren’t terribly difficult to remedy.

When you get down to it, there are only three things you need to do to repair a simple audio cable. Strip it back, join the two ends of each wire, then cover them back up. If you’ve ever used a soldering iron, then this will be pretty basic stuff. Just make sure that you’ve made a good physical connection before applying the solder, then wrap it back up with electrical tape, or use some shrink tubing. For a great step-by-step guide, check out this one from HowToGeek.