Eye bolts are used primarily as anchor points for rigging with cables, chains, and ropes. In addition to rigging, there are countless uses for eye bolts around the garage, home, and farm. designed to be used for straight vertical lifts only: lifting at angles greatly reduces the fastener’s workload. Standard eye bolts are used for light-duty lifting only. Screw eyes are commonly used to attach cables to objects, for instance, attaching a string to the back of a painting to allow the painting to hang from a nail on a wall.