How do I make eyebolts?

This evening I have been trying, with no success, to make miniature eyebolts.
Now that I have the guns for LE CERF made, I want to rig the darn things, and will need a lot for the rigging, etc. The eyebolts must be very small, around the diameter of a #76 (about .020") drill bit.
I tried to make eyebolts the usual way out of superfine brass rod twisted around a drill shank. No luck as the brass was too hard to form neatly. I annealed the brass rod and it became way too soft that the eye was easily pulled outta shape.
I tried to form the eyebolts using the tip of a very small pair of fine pliers. No luck, came out too big.
Any ideas on methods to form them or materials to make them from?
If they are impossible to make, how might I "fake" the eyebolts for the rigging of guns and other things?
{Kerry Jang}

Frustrating ain't it, Kerry.

Iron wire works best, I've found. This is dead soft iron and is available from Model Expo, Bluejacket, and others. In small sizes it is stronger than brass but soft enough to form easily. At the floral department of many stores, Walmart, HobbyLobby, etc., you can get a roll of floral wire, which is soft iron, and 0.018" in diameter that works well for many applications. Much cheaper than ordering it, although smaller sizes are available from the sources mentioned above.

I have built myself a machine that makes short work out of making eyebolts of any size for model work. But in lieu of that, try this. Make an L shaped piece of strong wire, music wire is good, of a diameter suitable for the inside diameter of the desired eyebolt. Securely fasten it into the end of a 3/8 or so dowel (a dowel big enough so that it fits in your hand nicely for the next step). It must be secure. Best to drill the hole for it at an angle and right through the side of the dowel so as to resist the pull you are going to apply to it.

Now cut short piece of your iron wire, wrap it around the end of the L, grip the two ends with pliers in one hand, the dowel in the other, and twist the dowel, applying a little tension. It will nicely twist up into an eye. Snip off the twisted end to a suitable length and you have it. Twisted eyebolts like this are much superior to the formed variety commonly available. And, they can be made to any desired size.

The machine I made is simply a crank handle on a stand which turns a rod that has a clevis end. The clevis accepts a hard wire, as the pin of the clevis, of a size for the eyebolt intended. Twist up and pull the pin. Lickety split.

If the L shaped wire described above doesn't work for you, try making a clevis out of brass rod and music wire and putting that into a dowel.
{Bob Crane}

For larger eyebolts, I wrap brass wire around the smallest round nosed pliers I have. Since this is still too large for your purposes, you will have to go on to something else. For smaller sizes, I put just the end of a piece of brass wire on a small anvil and bang it a few times with a small hammer until it is flattened. Then scribe and drill a hole of the appropriate size. Clean it up with a small file. Repeat as required. (Yes, it can get rather tedious).
{Jim Hastings}

Ok, at the risk of being laughed off the list, this is how I've made eyebolts in very small sizes:

Start with a rod the diameter you want the inside of the eye to be, and then tie a length of thin black rigging thread around it with a reef knot. Twisting the two loose ends together helps.

Touch the knot with a very small amount of CA while pulling the two loose thread ends away from the knot either directly away from the plane of the ring or perpendicular to the plane of the ring, depending on how you want the eyebolt to hang.

The glue wicks through the loop, and if you twist the forming rod while pulling the thread it will come off as a ring with a knot that represents the mounting ring, and a stiff twisted pair of strings to be glued into a hole in the wood.

I've made eyebolts in smaller scales with this method and it works very well if there won't be too much strain on the bolt when a line is tied to it. I usually use this technique for static eyebolts that won't have anything tied to them on the model.
{Jarod Matwiy}

I might worry that over time the CA might cause the eye to become very, very brittle. Just a thought.
{Michael McKinnon}

Kerry, if you have an NRG Ship Modelers Shop Notes, in the ordnance section there is a page that gives you the ID, OD of the various gun carriage eyebolts. The difference would give you the wire or rod diameter to use. The best way to make the eyebolts when the ID is .020" is to do exactly what you have been doing. That is wrap the annealed wire or rod around the drill shank held in a vise. Trim with a fine flush cutter, close the eye with fine pliers and bend the shank so it is in the middle of the eye. Here is where silver soldering comes in handy. Take a pepper size flake of solder and place on the joint with proper flux and heat with torch being sure to remove the flame the instant the silver flows or the eyebolt will burn up. With some practice, you can make these by the dozens. Place them on a soldering pad and solder several at the same time. When the eye is soldered, it can take a strain without deforming.
{Phil Krol}

First off, thank-you to everyone who sent me their ideas for making miniature eyebolts -- you guys and gals are great!
I experimented with most of them, and the best success was with the following.
I put a Jacobs chuck into the head of my lathe. I cut a piece of nichrome wire (thank you Jack for the samples!), size #35 or .0056" , looped it and trapped the loose ends into the jaws of the jacobs chuck. I slipped the drill bit of the diameter eyebold I wanted into the loop and turned the lathe on (slow speed). I let it twist until the eyebolt was formed.
I tried turning it by hand but that was tedious. I tried superfine brass rod using the lathe method and it worked, but the rod is so stiff it snapped off.
Nichrome has enough rigidity that the eyebolt is reasonably strong and keeps its shape, but twists very nicely.
I must get some more nichrome, anybody know of a good place that sells modellers quantities at a reasonable price?
{Kerry L. Jang}

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