i thught they only made them up to 1":blink:and that two big guys

 

I can't imagine bending 1 1/4" without a machine. I get kinks with the cheap 1" Emt from HD

 

Field bending beyond 1" is so slow that it's uneconomic. Factory bent elbows are the standard.

As for 1 1/4" -- the trade size -- I stay away from it. (unless it's PVC for sight lighting)

I'd rather bump up and use 1 1/2" -- which is dramatically easier to pull conductors into.

The failure rate -- attempting quarter-bends in 1 1/4" EMT -- is extremely high, of course. There are plenty of comic videos on YouTube showing such attempts.

 

How is using a bunch of fittings and factory bends more economical than learning how to use the bender?

But yes..... There are some funny Youtube videos of guys bending 1-1/4"

 

I have one sitting in the shop, got one big ass foot pedal on it....

You should see me jumping up and down on the thing trying to get leverage:laughing::laughing:

It takes some practice but you can bend it without kinking it.

 

I have a hand bender for 11/4. It works fine but it is very hard to make a factory looking bend.
Lots of foot pressure is required. How someone can say it is slower than another method is crazy IMO. It is hard to beat for offests and stuff like that.

Foot pressure is your friend. If you are 150 or under, good luck.

 

Years ago, I worked with a guy that had a Solon 1¼" EMT bender. It had a ratchet mechanism.

It was NOT like the big, honkin' Chicago benders. It was hardly much larcher than a traditional 1¼" bender.

Sadly, they're out of production now. So good luck finding one.

ETA: Better act fast!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SOLON-CB-1-...RATCHETING-E-M-T-BENDER-/221793467133?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33a3ebbafd

 

That is good deal and they do a great job.

 

If you have a service truck with a pipe vice on the bumper clamp the bender in it and bend that way.

 

Yes I have.

 

Last week I had to bend a very small offset in some 1-1/4 emt I used the greenlee ridgid bender and it did very well

 

You have to have some "butt" to put into it but it is do-able.

 

Yes, nice bends CAN be made with an 1 1/4 hand bender. It is more of a challenge these days-with all of the cheap and brittle EMT, but with a good grade of EMT I can bend 90s and I weigh 147 pounds. I would not want to bend 1 1/4 all day this way, but one or two bends is easier/faster than fetching the big bender. Note: I did not say that it was easy to bend, but that it was possible.

If all else fails, a person can make multiple shot 90s without kinking. the radius will be a little larger though.

 

I weigh 175 and can get nice 90 degree bends. 1 1/4 is tough but not impossible. I think it's easier to bend than that 3/4 rigid western tube and conduit company makes!! No thanks, allied or wheatland for me please!

 

Only do it after lunch , two cheeseburger minimum and every tool I own in the tool belt 👍

 

Good point 480.......as Im sure many guys here have experienced, the larger the conduit size, the harder it is to bend short pieces.

If its a short chunk of 1-1/4" (say 3 or 4 feet long) put it aside until you need a filler piece because bending it is gonna suck:laughing:


I have had varying degrees of success with coupling a longer piece of pipe onto a short piece and using that braced on the floor to do the bend.

 

A lot of success using couplers depends on the quality of both the pipe and the coupler.

 

Exactly my experience with it as well. If its a coupler with 4 set screws.....2 on each side....then it seems to work much better. If its crappy EMT then there isn't much any of us can do.

Very rare that I get crap grade EMT though.

 

Any time that I mis-bent the pipe I, too, said that it must be crappy emt.:blink:

 

Broke a coupling trying to gain leverage by adding on another piece of 1"

 

All we ever used for 1 1/4" was a hand bender... Sidewinders stayed at the shop, or on big jobs...

 

I did a job all 1-1/4" 20,000 plus feet bent it all by hand, I liked the Ideal Bender with the foot rest that flips to two positions.

LOT's and LOT's of foot pressure and a smooth pull, it ain't all azz it is finesse and azz.

 

Same here.
It's just an 1-1/4 job.
I would think about getting a Chicago bender or wasting resources and extra supports using factory bends.
The flip bender is nice, I have that one.
If I went on a job where they had a regular one, I would use that type.
Foot pressure and balance. You will for sure get some air time mounting up on that bender.

 

I'm a short, skinny, 2nd year apprentice. I weigh <150 lbs without my tool pouch. I don't have much experience bending 1.25", but I have enough that I can do 90s, offsets, and kicks with a fair amount of confidence and little rippling or kinking, if any. Keeping my foot as heavy as possible on the pedal seems to quite important. I don't know the make of our 1.25" benders (I think at least 1 is Greenlee), and the EMT is usually Wheaton. I can only bend on the ground, but I have seen a coworker bend 1.25" in the air without much effort. They call him Sasquatch.

edit: The benders all have the 2-position foot pedal
another edit: I think all the apprentices at my company like to run pipe and are excited when we get to do 1.25". I guess this is common? Or maybe because it is still somewhat new and exciting?

 

Did they check your penis before you joined?

Their benders aren't big enough

 

I find using a Sears protractor and bending 6 fifteen degree bends or ten 9 degree bends is so much easier, impossible to kink, and when it comes to pulling wire, it will fly through the bends.

 

I would not want to bid your labor.

 

Used mine yesterday making an arm for a led yardlight on a grain bin.Made it in the middle of county highway because there was mud everywhere.It is easier if you can keep one hand on a wall.

 

In the catfish/ bottom feeder end of the Commercial trade, it's as common as dust to leave the shop's bender back in the shop -- and to have all required custom offsets and bends and kicks phoned in/ run through the paperwork.

This is done because there aren't that many needed... and the materials handler is able to run the EMT/ IMC/ RMC out to the job in a timely manner.

In all such jobs, the bulk of the big stuff is in PVC -- below the slab.

Consequently, the bigger EMT runs have -- at most -- a single quarter-bend in them.

The typical NEC/ IBEW job is at the other end of the universe. Such a job will have so many significant runs of EMT/ RMC/ IMC that it makes perfect sense to haul the trick gear out to the job -- and bang out big bends.

At our distributors, 1 1/4" is a back-ordered size, 1 1/2" is a fast mover.

1 1/4" is super popular in site lighting runs. Hence, we'll run into the occasional EMT (transition run) in that size.

There are some fellas that just love to bring #10 THHN out of a panel in 1 1/4" EMT -- to set a central junction can over a T-grid. Every instance of this I've seen has devolved into a fiasco.

In sum: it's just not popular in Commercial applications, the Industrial trade runs a lot of it.

( 1 1/4" EMT is also a popular data-com stub/ riser spec -- with 4-11 boxes to match. It's just that no bending is required to stub out of a tin stud bay. )

 

...........( 1 1/4" EMT is also a popular data-com stub/ riser spec -- with 4-11 boxes to match. It's just that no bending is required to stub out of a tin stud bay. )

You don't have firewalls in your neck of the woods?

......So his employer is staring at a fifty-year supply of such fittings, .....

Send 'em back to the supply house.

 

15 HP - 3 phase compressor: I'm running #4 wire. With (2) #12's for the air dryer. About 100'. I can certainly squeeze it legally into 1" pipe. But it would be a killer to pull 100' of that. 1 1/4" would be much easier. And no reason to go to 1 1/2".

 

That's not too bad for 100' of 1".
Are you anticipating several 90s

 

my trick to bending 1-1/4" emt with a hand bender is doing it while standing in a doorway that way i can use the door frame as balance as i put all my weight on the bender lol

 

Agreed , great to support one self ... Rollie copied me from early thread on 1 1/4 .
.
The Best tip is to Butt the 1 1/4 conduit against a Wall and lean on the Adjacent Wall ... It will not slip then .

BORN TO BEND PIPE .



Pete