I use .039" piano wire. I bend the wire so that it wraps around the screw of the tortoise. I don’t bother with the hole in the actuator. The front view below shows how I bend the wire. I use my needle nose pliers to bend the wire and a pair of dikes to trim the wire of after installing the switch machine. I use template included in the instructions to mount the machine. I have cut out the template and mounted it to a piece of 1/4" luan plywood and have a 5/16" dowel sticking out of it. I use a 5/16" drill bit to drill the holes below all my turnouts. This makes for very good alignments of the switch machines with the turnouts.
