My pals at Popular Mechanics have put together this video we might find handy for the first day of an electricity week, entitled “How to Solder.” I’m glad to see them dipping their toe into the electronics realm again, considering that they’ve so often strayed away into less hands-on stuff. (There’s a place for that—everybody likes shiny new stuff from time to time—but of all magazines, PopMech should be showing people how to do this stuff.)

My only real criticism of this video is how easy Mike Allen makes soldering look. The first few times I tried to do it I could never get the wires hot enough to take the solder. Be sure your iron can make plenty of heat.