[Rollie73]

Not even in your back???

Welllll........maybe:laughing:

 

[Robimus]

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

 

[480sparky]

.......Brace the pipe against a wall or something similar and use lots of foot pressure and I can bend 90's all day long without a kink......

Just to clarify this for all those out there, he means butt the pipe up against something solid so it won't slide as you pull on the bender handle in that direction.

Another trick is to know that you need at least 5-6 feet of pipe (minus the bend) to have enough leverage to actually bend it. Trying to bend 1¼ towards a measly 24" of stock will be an exercise in futility.

 

[Rollie73]

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.

 

[480sparky]

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

 

[Rollie73]

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.

 

[dronai]

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

 

[JW Splicer]

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

 

[RIVETER]

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:

 

[Bad Electrician]

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.

 

[jabantik]

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?

 

[jabantik]

Did they check your penis before you joined?

Their benders aren't big enough

 

[JimmyR]

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.

 

[RIVETER]

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.

 

[Galt]

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.

 

[OaklandElec]

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.

T&M?

 

[telsa]

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"

Speed.

This EMT size is so infrequently used in Commercial construction that no-one builds up any skill with the manual bender.

Such tools are usually restricted to kicks.

In Commercial ( catfish zone ) work, 1 1/4" is normally run to and fro dry-type transformers. That's just about it.... for the entire job.

Industrial work uses it far more often -- as it's appropriate to a fair number of motor loads.

By staying with 1 1/2" EMT, a foreman/ PM avoids bringing back extremely slow turnover fittings. One fella I ran across violated this dictum. So his employer is staring at a fifty-year supply of such fittings, He was terminated for this -- and other -- boners. ( The license holder has an emotional reaction to tied up working capital. The number one source of EC bankruptcy.)

 

[telsa]

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. )

 

[Spark Master]

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".

 

[Southeast Power]

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.