Hard to beat Detail Associates grabs.  They come in a variety of sizes, but the ones you need are prob. #2202's.  I'm assuming HO.  Occasionally you have to make your own grabs.  I use brass wire either .010 or .012.  The way I do them is to first bend a nice right angle in the wire, using a pair of smooth jaw pliers, leaving about 1/2 inch or so tag.  Then I use a jig of some kind to space the width.  I've used .060 x .250 styrene with a small hole drilled exactly the space I want from the end.  I've also used brass stock with a notch filed into it to give correct spacing.  Usually I just use the same smooth jaw pliers since they are tapered somewhat, and I have a mark where certain size grabirons go.  Brass wire bends easily with just finger pressure, I'm unfamiliar with florist wire.  The trick is to get that first 90 deg. bend in the wire.

Mike

Florist's wire won't work - it's too soft and it will deform easily on the model. You need a hardened stiff wire like brass that will hold its shape and won't deform when you handle the model.

You need to be an early downloader of an issue and download the modeling sizes chart from the issue 3 section of bonus goodies.

Grab irons are about an inch in diameter. From the modeling sizes chart you can see that 1" in HO closest equivalent in wire size and drill size is #28 gauge wire and uses a #80 drill . #26 guage wire is equivalent to about 1-1/2" wire and uses a #78 drill, which is a bit on the large size.

that has three sets of spacing on it for their HO and N scale grabs (which are really great FWIW).  I am sure you could use it to bend grabs from the wire Joe specs.  And they are an MRH sponsor . . .

<![endif]-->

Item # 83139

For a larger view click the blue wording below!
 

GRABHANDLER WIRE BENDING TOOL

Make Perfect Grab Handles for Your Train, Aircraft, Truck and Military Models If you've ever tried to make your own grab handles by eyeballing bending on this tool.

List Price $55.00

Our Price $49.95

This will help you make every Grab Iron the same size every time.

Dan

http://evilmadscience.com/partsmenu/68-bender

They might not have the width settings needed. The one I linked only has .05" increments. But they are cheap. And you might already have one!

Ken,

Great idea for using a lead forming tool to bend grab irons.  It just might work if the sizes match.

The Micro-Mark tool looks great but the price, yikes!

    I didn't know that grab-iron jigs were commertially avalable (I told you it was sort of stupid for me to ask how to build one) About the price on the Micro-mark tool, Geez, can they lower the price on it? Or does it have some sort of special feature (like a built-in plasma cutter)?

  Now, I can see getting the resistor lead bender, it's cheep, and my Radio Shack may have it or could order one.

  Now for the floral wire: It's cheeper for me (mainly because my experiance w/brass wire sends the wire into orbit, even if super-glued to my hand) and I have used it for model cars with sucess for engine wiring (and I figure, why not go ahead and use it?) and I have plenty on hand.  I can live with 1-1/2" grab-irons (unless I enter a contest, then I'll get the brass wire) and I'm not overly concerned about bending it, once on the model, as I don't handle my locomotives a lot, and (hopefully) the possibility of de-railments will be almost none. Then again, mabe I could do some sort of strengthening (like heat-treating with a candle) and make the grab-irons better suited for the job.

  I use a pair of needle nose pliers. Put the pliers in a vise with the jaws open. Measure with a scale rule across one jaw, mark the spot and place a piece of tape where the mark is. Then remove and bend away. Place a piece of wire at the edge of the tape and fold over both sides and nip the ends off. Repeat and repeat.

   Pete

Jeez - $50 for a grab iron bending tool - that's nuts.  Grandt Line used to (still does?) throw in a plastic grab iron jig with some of its car kits.  It's basically a flat piece of styrene with a hole for one end of the grab (you bend the first end of the wire 90 degrees before inserting), and alignment guides are cast on so you can line up the wire precisely to the edge of the jig, where you make the other 90 degree bend.  

I've used a similar idea to create jigs for special-sized grabs. Drill a hole the proper spacing from the edge of a scrap of styrene, and glue another scrap to guide the alignment of the wire to the edge where you make the other bend.  Glue another guide on the other side of the wire if you like, but I find one is enough. You can make a jig in a couple minutes and accurately bend grabs all day.  Make a new jig when the old one wears out.  The best part is you're using essentially free scrap material.

The above only makes straight grabs.  To form drop grabs, just mount another piece of styrene elsewhere on your jig to space the entire straight grab the right distance from the edge for the bends to create the drop, place the straight grab against it, and fold the wire over the edge of the jig with pliers for the final 90 degreee bends.

I only use the home-made jigs for special sizes.  Use the pre-formed wire grabs anywhere you can for standard sizes to save time. 

Just saw your newer post on the floral wire, CSX.  You will regret using it.  Some of the older craftsman car kits had floral wire for grabs, and it's way too soft.  I don't handle my models a lot either, but found it to be just too easily deformed to be worth using, even for the initial installation (good luck getting all the grabs inserted without deforming at least a few).  You will be much happier with brass wire or some other source of harder material.