With the proliferation of portable MP3 players, 1/8″ (3.5mm) auxiliary (aux) audio input jacks, long popular on stereo equipment, are popping up all over the place–even cars. To use these handy connections, you usually need a male to male stereo audio cable that connects to your MP3 player’s headphone jack and then to the aux input.

While you could just buy a new auxiliary cable for around $5, those tinkerers among us might be interested to know that they can also make a aux cable from two pairs of old headphones. On this episode of CNET’s Hacks, Tom Merritt shows you how to use old headphones and a soldering iron to create an auxiliary audio cable.