Lifting or Not? The Line We Draw First
Eye bolts split into two worlds, and an honest supplier tells you which one your job belongs to before quoting:
Load-rated overhead lifting
Hoisting machinery, engines, molds — anything that swings over people. That is drop-forged, heat-treated shoulder eye bolt territory (ASME B18.15, rigged per ASME B30.26, marked WLL). Buy them from a rigging supplier. We don't machine rated lifting eyes — and if you ask us to quote one, we'll say exactly that.
Everything else — our lane
Guying and tensioning, cable terminations, tie-down points, fixtures and positioning, architectural rigging, covers and hatches, replacements for unrated originals. Here the problem is never load rating — it's that the geometry you need doesn't exist in a catalog. That's a machining job.
Eye Bolt Patterns We Machine
| Pattern | How it's made | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| One-piece machined | Turned and milled from solid bar — eye, shank and thread with no weld or bend seam | Clean geometry, stainless/titanium, exact eye ID |
| Bent-eye (open or closed) | Formed from rod; closed eyes welded on request | Cable ends, guy wires, hooks and lashing points |
| Swing / articulated (DIN 444 style) | Machined eye pivoting on a pin | Clamping levers, quick-release closures, autoclave doors |
| Shoulder-pattern, unrated | Machined shoulder seats against the face | Positioning, alignment and fixture points |
| Lag-thread eye screws | Machined eye with wood/lag thread | Timber structures, architectural |
| Eye studs / fully threaded | Thread the full shank length, eye on top | Adjustable tensioning, turnbuckle ends |
| Long shank, with nut and washer | Eye bent from rod, threaded shank, zinc plated; supplied as a set with hex nut and large washer | Cast-in anchors, hanger rods, pull rings, tie-down points |
Every dimension floats: eye inside diameter, shank length, thread size and pitch are whatever the drawing says — including combinations that exist in no standard, like a 28 mm eye on an M12×1.25 fine thread, or a BSW thread for a hundred-year-old machine, matched from your sample the same way as any replacement bolt.
One word or two — eyebolt or eye bolt — is the same part on the same drawing; catalogues and prints use both spellings, and we quote either.
Long-Shank Eye Bolts With Nut and Washer — Bent From Rod, Zinc Plated
The eye bolt in the photo is the one that hangs, anchors and ties down rather than lifts: an eye bent from rod on a long threaded shank, supplied as a set with a hex nut and a large-diameter washer. The set shown is 250 mm overall, 190 mm shank, 35 mm eye inside diameter, 60 mm washer, bent from rod, zinc plated. Each of those four numbers is set per order; so is the thread.
Trade names for the same drawing: long-shank eye bolt, eye bolt with nut and washer, ring bolt or pull-ring bolt, eye-end hanger rod, cast-in or embedded anchor eye bolt when it is set in concrete before the pour, and hook bolt or J-bolt when the eye is left open as a hook. We quote all of them from the same four dimensions.
| Name on the enquiry | Where it sits | What the drawing fixes |
|---|---|---|
| Eye bolt with nut and washer | Through a beam, plate or timber; nut and washer on the far side | Shank length, thread, eye inside diameter, washer diameter |
| Cast-in / embedded anchor eye bolt | Set in the formwork before the concrete pour; shank, washer and nut embedded, eye proud of the finished face | Embedment (shank) length, washer diameter as the anchor plate, eye inside diameter; the structural engineer sizes the embedment, we hold the dimensions |
| Ring bolt / pull ring | Pull point on covers, hatches, panels and carts | Eye inside diameter for the hand or hook, short shank |
| Eye-end hanger rod | Suspended ducts, pipe, trays and fit-out; rod taken up with a coupling nut | Rod length and thread; see threaded rods and studs |
| Hook bolt / J-bolt | Open eye bent as a hook, where the hung item lifts off without tools | Hook opening and depth; made beside our U-bolts |
Bent from rod and zinc plated is what both photos show. The same geometry is machined one-piece in 304 or 316L when it lives outdoors or near the sea, and in C45 steel, zinc plated, when the drawing says steel. A plate lug with a hole — pad eye, eye lug, tie-down lug — is a flat part cut and drilled to the same enquiry when the hung item needs a bracket rather than a bolt. None of these are load-rated lifting points — the line above still applies.
Sizes, Threads & Materials
| Attribute | Range |
|---|---|
| Threads | Metric coarse & fine M5–M36, UNC/UNF ¼"–1¼", BSW/BSF, left-hand on request |
| Eye inside diameter | 6–60 mm, independent of thread size |
| Shank length | To 500 mm+, fully or partially threaded |
| Materials | Stainless A2-70 (304 / 1.4301), 303 (1.4305) free-machining for one-piece turned eyes, A4-80 (316L / 1.4404), aluminium 6061 for light non-structural eyes, titanium Grade 5, brass, C45 / 42CrMo4 steel, zinc-plated steel rod for bent eyes |
| Finish | Plain, passivated, black oxide, zinc; polished for architectural work |
| Documentation | EN 10204 3.1 material certificate and dimensional report on request |
An eye bolt is usually half a joint. On non-lifting stays, architectural rigging and suspended fit-out the other half is a length of threaded rod, and the rod is joined or taken up with a coupling nut — in brass, a brass coupling nut cut to length; in a load path, the steel or A4 equivalent.
Catalogue Part or Made to Order
DIN 444 swing bolts in coarse thread and standard length sit in every fastener distributor's catalogue, and we say so; to a drawing we make the size, thread and material the catalogue leaves out, from 1 piece.
| What you need | In a catalogue? | What we make |
|---|---|---|
| Lifting eye bolts DIN 580 / ASME B18.15 M8 to M24 with a working load limit, to lift a machine or a mould | Yes — rigging supplier | Buy them there; we do not machine rated lifting points and say so on every enquiry. |
| A few zinc-plated screw eyes or eye bolts in hardware-store sizes | Yes — every hardware store | Buy it there, or ask us; to a drawing we also make them from 1 piece. |
| DIN 444 swing bolts M6 to M24, coarse thread, standard length, zinc or A2 | Yes — fastener distributor | Buy it there, or ask us; fine pitch, special length or a replacement from a sample is ours. |
| Eye bolt M12 × 1.25 fine thread, 120 mm shank, A4 polished, 28 mm eye | No | Turned to the drawing, from 1 piece, quote in 12 hours. |
| Long-shank eye bolt 250 mm with a 35 mm eye, 60 mm washer and nut as a cast-in set, 50 pieces | No — not in that combination | Made as a set, bent from rod and zinc plated or in A4, dimensions to the drawing. |
| 3/8 BSW or 1/2 UNF eye bolt for an old machine | No | Thread gauged from the sample, eye turned to the original size, one piece possible. |
The Jobs That Land on Our Bench
"316 eye bolts for cable rigging — but the shank has to be 120 mm and polished."
Catalog stainless eyes stop at standard lengths and a mill finish. We machine the exact shank, thread and eye ID in 316L, polished, with matching coupling nuts or turnbuckle ends if the run needs them.
"The swing bolts on our autoclave door are worn — metric fine thread, nobody lists it."
DIN 444 style swing bolts in fine pitch are a turning job. Send one worn original; we measure eye, pin bore and thread, and machine replacements in A4 — plus spares in the same run.
"A 1930s machine has ⅜ BSW eye bolts with an undersized eye. Extinct."
Pre-metric threads are routine here: we gauge the Whitworth thread from your sample and machine the eye to the original drawing dimensions — one piece if that's all you need.
Matched counterparts: eye nuts, clevis ends, pins and U-bolts can be machined in the same material and finish, so a rigging or tensioning run arrives as one consistent, certified package.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not for load-rated overhead lifting — that calls for drop-forged, WLL-marked eye bolts to ASME B18.15/B30.26 from a rigging supplier, and we'll say so if asked. Machined eye bolts are for guying, tensioning, tie-down, fixtures and architectural work where geometry, not rating, is the problem.
Yes — machined eye, precision shank, metric coarse or fine, stainless or steel, including non-standard lengths and replacements measured from a worn sample.
One-piece from solid bar, bent-eye open or closed, DIN 444 swing bolts, unrated shoulder-pattern, lag-thread eye screws and fully threaded eye studs — with eye ID, shank and thread all to your print.
One piece. No tooling, no minimum — two stainless eye bolts in an odd thread is a normal order here.
A drawing, sketch or the old eye bolt. Key dimensions: thread size and pitch, shank length, eye inside diameter, material or environment. Quote in 12 hours.
Yes. The long-shank pattern ships as a set — eye bolt, hex nut and large washer — bent from rod and zinc plated, or in 304/316L, to the shank length, eye inside diameter and washer diameter on your drawing; the set in our photo is 250 mm overall with a 190 mm shank, 35 mm eye and 60 mm washer. As a cast-in anchor the shank, washer and nut sit in the concrete and the eye stays proud of the face. We hold the dimensions; the structural engineer sizes the embedment, and it is not a rated lifting point.
Get Eye Bolts Quoted
Drawing, dimensions or the worn original. Engineers reply in 12h.
// Qty & price
1 pc
Sample price
Confirm fit before a run
10–50
Unit price drops
Setup cost shared
100+
Best price
All tiers quoted upfront
- →No distributor — you pay the maker directly
- →CAD saved after first order — reorder anytime at lower unit price