Help bending pipe with a Chicago bender

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Eddy Current

Senior Member
I recently went from doing commercial construction work to doing industrial maintenance work. I can bend all day long on an EMT hand bender but i had never used a Chicago bender until i got this new job. Does anybody know any websites or any helpful tips?
 

Cow

Senior Member
Location
Eastern Oregon
Occupation
Electrician
Put marks on the gear/ratcheting mechanism so you bend to the same spot every time. Don't use the degree'd plate when bending, there's to much springback to use it accurately.

There's a way to bend so it ends up evenly on the "clicks" but I haven't taken the time to figure it out yet. If you have a lot of bending to do it'd probably be worthwhile. Using marks on the gear mechanism takes a little trial-and-error, but it's worked for me pretty well.
 

wireman

Inactive, Email Never Verified
Put marks on the gear/ratcheting mechanism so you bend to the same spot every time. Don't use the degree'd plate when bending, there's to much springback to use it accurately.

There's a way to bend so it ends up evenly on the "clicks" but I haven't taken the time to figure it out yet. If you have a lot of bending to do it'd probably be worthwhile. Using marks on the gear mechanism takes a little trial-and-error, but it's worked for me pretty well.

To bend using the "clicks method" you put in the pipe and bend it say 4 pumps (clicks), pull the pipe out-put it on the ground and use the triangle method to find the next mark (just like many do when bending EMT by hand). Put the pipe back into the bender and pump/click the same # of times.

Using the same # of pumps each time ensures that both angles are the same.

Forget all of that and use the "amount of travel" method. It's quicker and more accurate.
 
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