Learning to bend conduit

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zcanyonboltz

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Any advice on teaching yourself to bend conduit, I rarely need to at work mostly romex,mc, and underground work but would like to get the basics of of conduit down for the times I do need to know it.
I ordered the book -guide to conduit bending, my buddy said to get some boxes and some emt and set the boxes on some 2x4s in my garage in various locations and practice getting emt to the box. Thanks
 
You could learn the way I learned, which is eyeballing everything :lol:. To this day I can get EMT to where it's gotta go with out ever touching a tape measure. Usually you end up with far more waste than is necessary. If running 1/2" this may not be a concern, but with larger diameter pipe, excessive waste is unacceptable. Also, when running multiple parallel pipes with bends, they need to all look the same or it's going to look like crap. So, I had to eventually learn the correct way to do it. There are many web sites you can go to and, of course, there's YouTube, which I would recommend.
 
Check out this book:

https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...7nMcCFY9Rkgod_O8BGg&ei=JobHVfjcLo-jyQT834fQAQ

shopping


I use a different one, but I think the above will be of great help to you. That, and practicing on lots of pieces of scrap!
 
1/2 EMT is easy, use that to learn. 3/4 EMT is not bad but you may be surprised just how much more difficult some things may be then they are with 1/2"

Then graduate to RMC/IMC.

I have a 1-1/4 EMT hand bender, probably bend more inch RMC/IMC with it then EMT - and is a challenge sometimes to just make a simple offset.

I don't bend full 90 degree bends in 1-1/4 EMT - they often don't turn out so good - maybe kinks, flattened, etc. Brand of tubing used probably does matter. Otherwise in those larger sizes you are often better off to buy 90 degree elbows or even 45 degree elbows and save the bender for the odd angles and tweaking.
 
The little ideal book you get with a new bender is probably the best thing you can start off with. Then just practice, you can't learn without hands on experience.
 
it depends. but, be honest. are you a residential wiremanjoining a commercial/industrial outfit or do you really just want to brush up?if its #1 then what type of installation is it? in wall with steel studs?racks? exposed on walls? do tell and I bet you'd get the nitty gritty tips. and the one fellah is correct,you should install more than you throw in a pile.when you get good at it all the scrap should be 3' or less straight"bones" as we call it. aside from bending tips, its AS important to know all the caddy fasteners you have available (like the flange clips orbangers iuw) and how it affects your math, back of bends and such. you will want to gain a complete understanding of using a tape measure first because it will help you UNDERSTAND the orientation of the bender and what end is the boxside and which is the running side. for instance, in stud walls- top of the boxis 20", the top of the stud hole is say 28" (it usually is exactlythat). that means I can ask you just like this- "give me a 28" 90deg stub) and any one here would know exactly what I need.w/o getting into the issues of hitting a conn that'sright next to a stud or that you need to minus about a 1/2" so there's room in the hole to get the pipe in the conn... you are now set up to use the deduct that's on the bender (like 6" for 3/4").when you completely understand 90deg stubs then you will always remember that the arrow end of the bender (crap I cant remember what that end is called :( )opposite of your foot,will always be pointed towards the box. very important! it will help you when you master the back of the bend and which way to look at the shoe. oh, and put your offset on first. offsets are actually pretty hard to get looking good because we usually eyeball those. and always install the box first or it will look like crap until you are good. same for panels. if you cant start at the box then try stopping halfway at a 90. More to come J
 
K8MHZ said:
Worse.

There should be no such thing as a 1-1/4" EMT hand bender. The last time I used one I was nearly 200 lbs. and still didn't have enough azz to make a bend without having to jump up and down on the foot pad.
Click to expand...




When bending 1 1/4 with hand bender ... You must butt it against a wall ... simple trick most do not know . Then lean against adj. wall .

or

run 1 1/2 and use a shoe bender .




Don
 
K8MHZ said:
Check out this book:

https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...7nMcCFY9Rkgod_O8BGg&ei=JobHVfjcLo-jyQT834fQAQ

shopping


I use a different one, but I think the above will be of great help to you. That, and practicing on lots of pieces of scrap!
Click to expand...

This is the answer to your question, period. There is also a Benfield video. You can buy the book and video bundled with a Benfield bender or you used to be able to. After that, it is an issue of trying the bends, figuring out which ones are worth it and which ones are not, this is different for each of us. The one thing the book probably mentions, but I will reinforce, downward pressure at all times. The handle's length should be the assist with the foot on the shoe doing the work (sort of needs to feel that way, not really true). If you have to bend int the air, get the pressure point as close to the handle as possible, I use my armpit and my hand clamped over the shoe with short jerking motions.
 
Starting to learn myself...
If you don't bend very often and own a smartphone I found iBend Pipe (for IPhone) to be pretty accurate and extremely easy to use.
The hardest thing for me learning right now is initial saddle and offset bends hardly come out right the first time without adjustments
and hanging pipe off an exiting pipe straight without a ground spotter or laser is difficult.
 
RLyons said:
Starting to learn myself...
If you don't bend very often and own a smartphone I found iBend Pipe (for IPhone) to be pretty accurate and extremely easy to use.
The hardest thing for me learning right now is initial saddle and offset bends hardly come out right the first time without adjustments
and hanging pipe off an exiting pipe straight without a ground spotter or laser is difficult.
Click to expand...


Wow never even thought of that considering i was learning back in 2000 when all the phones were good for was making calls.
 
JGRC said:
Wow never even thought of that considering i was learning back in 2000 when all the phones were good for was making calls.
Click to expand...
We didn't have mobile phones when I was new to the trade, I guess I still could have called the boss to ask how to do something- but unless he was in the office or I knew where to find him, would have needed to wait for him to call back after he got the message.
 
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