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I Hate Bending Conduit

14K views 60 replies 22 participants last post by  Majewski 
#1 ·
There, I said it!:mad:
Coming up in the trade I always had a guy who loved bending conduit and I didn't have much interest in it so I let him "have at it"!

Now after many years on my own I have scabbed by when I had to bend some, usually a 90 or box off set and I was good.
But now I have a job that is requiring several bends, some in the same run.
When I looked at the job I thought I would just shoot through the wall to an area above a dropped ceiling and change to MC.
But when I started the work I found that wasn't going to work.:censored:

Anyway, all I need to know for now is when to use what angles of bends.
In short, is there a chart that says when to use a 22.5°, 30°, a 45°, etc.
I have all the multipliers but get confused on when to use what bends.

BTW, I'm using 3/4" EMT.
 
#2 · (Edited)
Our go to at my company is 30-30 offsets for the majority of pipe run obstacles. It's not too offensive looking, ie: avoiding an excessively large distance between the two bends, while still being fairly easy to pull through. And with a multiplier of two, its hard to go wrong.

My boss likes using 30's job-wide where possible for consistency as well. When there's a bunch of us apprentices running pipe on a large commercial site, its nice to see some general uniformity among work done by different workers.

I usually reserve tighter bends for use as rolling offsets in tight areas, and where aesthetics are a little more stringent.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Use the shallowest bends you can to reduce the number of boxes and make pulling easier.

That said, it usually ends up that most offsets and saddles are bent at 30s. 45 eats up too much allowable bend, and 22 often makes your bends too big. It's nice to know all the math for everything, but if you get comfortable doing stuff with 30s you can usually rock-and-roll.
 
#6 ·
All my opinion...

Consider this: use the smaller degree's for the lesser offset.
Now some may argue that a smaller degree used will only give more travel length between bends, true but it will look better in my opinion.

45 degree for large offsets.

A box offset is basically a 10 degree bend with a 45 degree multiplier, 1.4

10 degrees is used with a multiplier of 6, which You didn't mention.
 
#10 ·
Damn I started out in resi and after 6 months I quit to find a job to learn me the commercial side of the trade, I even took less pay to get my foot in the door.

I learned how to bend pipe and then I bent some more pipe. Then my boss said hey kid you are pretty good at bending pipe so you're our piper from now on and I was so proud... for about 6 months then I just said all I ****ing do here is run conduit.
So I quit because I didnt want to get pigeon holed into doing the same thing day in day out.
I have gotten so used to running conduit that I find myself always looking up when I walk into a store or building to see how they ran the pipe.

Anyway wth was the question?

Oh yah 30-30 its easy just multipy by 2
Always bend a scrap stub 90 with your bender of choice and measure the take up, your 3/4" bender take up may not be exactly 6"
Box offsets just eyeball it.
3 point saddle 15-30-15
For 90 degrees just dont do what this guy does and you will be fine.
 
#21 ·
For me, it is not so much I don't like bending conduit, it is the hanging and installing the hangers I hate. Oh, and since I am the company owner, buying the ever more and more expensive Greenlee benders. An 1818 Chicago style greenlee used to be $1,200 when I started contracting, and now they list new at $4,500. I know , build the cost into the job, and then write it all off , ok I get it, but ............ And my beloved triple nickel smart bender is up to around 15 grand now , I paid around 6-7,000 dollars each for the two I've owned. Only one I got cheap and used was a 777 which is now in the 800 series - one shot lay on the floor hydraulic triangle style with ram shoes. I think I paid around 800 for that one.
 
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#22 ·
From one pipe hack to another - first thing I do is adjust the pride level in favor of getting the work done efficiently. If it's something a customer will raise an eye over, get it right. If it's just electrician-aesthetics, get over it.

Single most productive thing you can do is buy a lot of couplings and the M12 bandsaw. Calculate less and trim to fit more. Majewski's bend that came out the wrong direction? Five seconds with the portaband and a quarter for a coupling, another ten seconds to tighten two screws, and pretend it never happened.

Hack box offsets - err towards making them a little too deep, and move the box a little to the right to a spot where the offset is just right. If questioned, insist that you do that on purpose, and that you think it looks nicer, it's not crooked, it's on purpose, like italics or the slant in handwriting. And if it is anywhere above 6', f. offsets. If you shoot for a little big and it comes out a little small, it's perfect. If it comes out way small, decide if you can pretend it's over 6' and f. it, it's close enough.
 
#25 ·
Single most productive thing you can do is buy a lot of couplings and the M12 bandsaw.
I was going to post this but you beat me to it.

Back when I was on a big construction site bending pipe all day, it was a thing of pride to bend multiple bends on one pipe, say back-to-back 90's with a kick, all lined up perfectly. If you had to use a coupling, you knew you would hear about it from another electrician calling you an ametuer.

Today, I wish my supply house carried 90 degree bends in 1/2" EMT because I would buy them in a heartbeat :thumbup::thumbup::laughing:
 
#23 ·
Every guy that told me they were a pipe man or great at it usualy sucked. They were just saying that to do something they liked, or trying to get out of something they hated. All the conduit masters that I know, never say they are great at it.

Like Mike said, bending it is the fun and easy part, hanging it sucks and gets old.

Conduit running is all in the layout, any monkey can bend it. The best conduit runs are straight. Only apprentices are proud that they can put every bend in the book, in just ten feet of pipe.
 
#26 ·
Usually the efficiency is in fewer movements.
Young guy on the ladder calling out bend measurements, older guy on the ground bending and handing it back up.
When things go well, pipe guy is handing up the new piece just as the hanger guy is reaching down for the next piece.

EMT goes in extremely fast.
Oh yeah, as mentioned, using 30 degree bends is really the only way to go if at all possible.
 
#39 ·
Those 810 box-offset benders are great, but you have to do a thousand of them to warrant the cost. Once you get good at it, it only takes approx. 5-10 seconds to bend a box offset......remember, it doesn't have to be perfect......we're not building a piano!
 
#41 · (Edited)
Those little kickers are nice for box sets when you are running conduit all day every day.

I never thought I would hear of anyone buying one of those shot gun smart benders. But my employer just bought one. They have a job starting up that needs thousands of 1" stubs for data drops. I guess it will pay for itself when you pay an apprentice to prefab them.

They may have just bought the 1" shotgun shoe, but I think they needed another bender anyway.
 
#44 ·
Segments are the only technique I can think of that I haven't been required to do. I practiced a bit at home with some 1/2" TUBING and it came out okay. Rigid might even be easier since I wouldn't be using a footbender. The only thing that gets me is determining the radius. Could I just take the standard radii from a Greenlee and add for spacing and pipe width?
 
#48 ·
I hear statements like this a lot. And I'm not disagreeing with you or saying it's not possible, but I use a pencil and a tape measure and my stuff ALWAYS comes out perfect. First time, every time, any size. I save way more time by putting my bends on the nuts than anyone ever would by eyeballing it. Aim small, miss small. My 2 cents.


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