Chicago Benders, Illegal 90's.

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jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
I may have posted this before, don't remember. Please ignore if I have.

Does anyone know why so many Chicago benders are made to bend an illegal 90 on 1/2 inch rigid? Radius is way too small, I forget the exact numbers. I could understand it if the machine were made specifically for some other kind of pipe but it is made with conduit in mind, at least I think it is.

Any insights?
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
I may have posted this before, don't remember. Please ignore if I have.

Does anyone know why so many Chicago benders are made to bend an illegal 90 on 1/2 inch rigid? Radius is way too small, I forget the exact numbers. I could understand it if the machine were made specifically for some other kind of pipe but it is made with conduit in mind, at least I think it is.

Any insights?

'cause sometimes you just need a itty-bitty corner to turn? :happyyes:

i've used them a lot, and i've never gotten turned down by an inspector,
but yeah, you don't want to put three of them in a 150' run of pipe.....

there's the red dot 1/2" embedments, used with poured in place stuff to turn out a stub
when you can't penetrate the form.... those are worse than the chicago benders....
i worked on a hotel once, that had thousands and thousands of feet of 1/2" emt in the slabs, and
you'd have these 90' and 100' long home runs, that would turn on one of those and go up
three floors.... and right in the middle of the run, is a red dot.

just kill me now, so i don't suffer any more.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
I may have posted this before, don't remember. Please ignore if I have.

Does anyone know why so many Chicago benders are made to bend an illegal 90 on 1/2 inch rigid? Radius is way too small, I forget the exact numbers. I could understand it if the machine were made specifically for some other kind of pipe but it is made with conduit in mind, at least I think it is.

Any insights?

Are you talking about a "one shot" bender that bends at a radius less then allowed by NEC, or about a "hickey" bender that needs multiple "shots" to bend a 90 degree elbow in a conduit? Many of the latter is possible to bend a 90 degree elbow with less then NEC allowed radius.
 

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
I may have posted this before, don't remember. Please ignore if I have.

Does anyone know why so many Chicago benders are made to bend an illegal 90 on 1/2 inch rigid? Radius is way too small, I forget the exact numbers. I could understand it if the machine were made specifically for some other kind of pipe but it is made with conduit in mind, at least I think it is.

Any insights?

I own two Lidseen Chicago Benders. What are you talking about? I have never had any problem as you have described on any Chicago bender I have used.

Are you sure it's a Chicago bender that is making the radii to small?
 

don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
I would never use the 1/2" shoe on a Chicago bender as the radius is very tight, but did not know that the bending radius did not comply with Chapter 9, Table 2. In fact a quick look at a Lidseen Chicago bender shows that the 1/2, 3/4 and 1" bending radii are all smaller than permitted by that table.
 

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
I would never use the 1/2" shoe on a Chicago bender as the radius is very tight, but did not know that the bending radius did not comply with Chapter 9, Table 2. In fact a quick look at a Lidseen Chicago bender shows that the 1/2, 3/4 and 1" bending radii are all smaller than permitted by that table.

That seems to be true on the 5100, but not the 5300.

Also, the measurements are from the inside of the bend, not the centerline. Even so, that still seems to put the radii on the 5100's under.

I don't know which one I have...I will check that out some day.
 

don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
That seems to be true on the 5100, but not the 5300.

Also, the measurements are from the inside of the bend, not the centerline. Even so, that still seems to put the radii on the 5100's under.

I don't know which one I have...I will check that out some day.
I don't know which one we have either, but I do know that I never use the 1/2" shoe.
 

infinity

Moderator
Staff member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Journeyman Electrician
Maybe these benders are for factory production use where Table 2, Chanter 9 does not apply.
 

Canton

Senior Member
Location
Virginia
Occupation
Electrician
'cause sometimes you just need a itty-bitty corner to turn? :happyyes:

i've used them a lot, and i've never gotten turned down by an inspector,
but yeah, you don't want to put three of them in a 150' run of pipe.....

there's the red dot 1/2" embedments, used with poured in place stuff to turn out a stub
when you can't penetrate the form.... those are worse than the chicago benders....
i worked on a hotel once, that had thousands and thousands of feet of 1/2" emt in the slabs, and
you'd have these 90' and 100' long home runs, that would turn on one of those and go up
three floors.... and right in the middle of the run, is a red dot.

just kill me now, so i don't suffer any more.

Whoever ran 1/2" anything in the deck should be shot onsight........!!!!! 1" minimum on deck work, 3/4" if necessary. We all know that 360 degrees is probably a good run in a deck, where most runs end up being 4-6 (90's). Especially if going up through columns to other floors.
 

don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
Maybe these benders are for factory production use where Table 2, Chanter 9 does not apply.
They are used by electricians around here all the time. For detail 3/4 and 1" conduit, I much prefer a "Chicago" bender over a 555.

Also, I checked and the ones we have are the 5100 model.
 
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