You can make servicable dumbbell eyes without the cost or hassle of pouring lead into a mold.

All you need are a couple of inexpensive tools (one of which requires a bit of a modification) and some lead wire.

First, buy a cheap set of what we used to call 'dykes' or heavy duty wire cutting pliers. These need to have tapered cutting edges (picture the point of two 'V's coming together). I bought mine at the dollar store for a dollar.... You'll also need a dremel tool with a small cylindrical grinding bit or a small round hand file. Use either of these to grind a small hole in the blade of the dykes. You want a hole approximately 1/16 inch in diameter. The dremel is faster, but the hand file works just as well.

You'll also need a set of flush cutting wire cutters (what lead molders call 'sprue cutters'). These are essentially wire cutters that have one side of the jaws that form a smooth surface when closed, allowing them to make a squared or 'flush' cut. The dollar store had these, too.

For the 'material' you'll need some lead wire. Solder, sold in one pound rolls at the hardware store, is close enough (get the stuff with the highest concentration of lead). You can find it in 1/8 inch diameter, which is perfect for our purpose. I found some thicker 1/4 inch stuff at the local Sportsman's Wharehouse in the trolling weights section if you need really heavy dumbbells.

Now to 'make' a lead dumbbell, first unroll some of your wire and flush cut one end (I find it easier to handle a piece of wire about 12 inches long, longer is too unweildy, and shorter goes too fast...).

Take your modified special dumbbell making pliers and squeeze then onto the wire where you want the 'waist' of the dumbbell to be. You'll get a more even result if you squeeze them gradually while turning the wire. Depending on the structure of your pliers, you may want to flip them over during this process to keep things 'even'.

This process makes the waist of the dumbbell (the 'narrow' section where you tie it to the hook).

After you've got your waist, cut the dumbbell free with your flush cutters.

You can adjust the 'weight' of the dumbbells by how long you make the 'ends' on either side of the waist.

The 1/8 inch lead wire makes 'medium' sized dumbbells. If you want smaller ones, you can get thinner lead wire, but you should also make a smaller hole in the pliers blade for these. You want the hole about one half the diameter of the wire. Same goes for larger dumbbells (make usre you can find the larger wire first), just make a larger hole in the blade. Plenty of room for three 'holes' in one pair of these pliers.

I leave the ends of mine 'flat' since I typically either glue dome shaped epoxy eyes to them, or leave them plain.

If you must have that rounded 'dome shaped' end that the store bought ones feature, it's not hard to do, just takes another cheap tool slightly modified to do this.

Buy one of those little cheapie hammers, again from the dollar store. Not the full sized hammers, one of those little girly sized things that they call 'tack hammers' or something.

Put a round grinding bit into your dremel tool and grind a rounded indentation into the face of the hammer (a cheap hammer isn't too hard, and will let you do this pretty easily).

Once you've got this done, hold the dumbbell in the pliers you made them in and gently rap the end of the dumbbell with the modified hammer. Flip the dumbbell over, and do the other end. Now the dumbbell is ready to paint, if that's what you want.

I can make a couple of hundred dumbbell eyes in an hour with this methd, and they work as well as the store bought ones. The tools cost less than five dollars, and a pound of solder is around ten bucks (I, of course, went way overboard and ordered a thirty pound roll of 1/8 inch pure lead wire). Takes an hour or less to do the 'modifications' to the tools.

From one pound of wire you can get a thousand or so eyes.

Good Luck!

Buddy