Aluminum head benders

Status
Not open for further replies.
Electromatic

Electromatic

Senior Member
Location
Virginia
Occupation
Master Electrician
Does anybody have pros/cons of hand conduit benders with aluminum heads instead of iron? Our shop has all iron head benders. I'm looking to get one just for my truck and can see the potential benefit of the aluminum being less heavy, but then I wonder about durability.
Also, any observations about brands: Ideal, Klein, Greenlee, etc.?
Thanks.
 
Electromatic said:
Does anybody have pros/cons of hand conduit benders with aluminum heads instead of iron? Our shop has all iron head benders. I'm looking to get one just for my truck and can see the potential benefit of the aluminum being less heavy, but then I wonder about durability.
Also, any observations about brands: Ideal, Klein, Greenlee, etc.?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Never liked any Greenlee conduit benders even though our shop had them. Learned on the old iron benfield benders 60 years ago while in grade school helping my sparky dad. Think Ideal bought them out. If you purchase a bender for 1.25" EMT make sure you get the bender that had a two position foot. When bending a 90 degree bend you bend around halve of the bend then reposition the food pedal. Also a lot easier bending 1.25" EMT wearing work boots. Have bent it while wearing sneakers and a lot harder. Another tip when bending 1 & 1.25" conduit makes it easier if you can place end laying in floor to a wall so it does not move. Purchase a conduit level to aid in bending. I used to paint my most often used bender ( 3/4" EMT ) with a couple of coats of bright white paint then use a bright red or orange paint marker to high light the degree & back to back 90 marks. A lot easier to see in dim lighting. I often used the steel door frame to make sure I made perfect 90'S. Not many of my coworkers liked the Greenlee benders.
 
Ideal makes a good bender, we had a guy that was a expert bender that refused to use anything other than ideal benders. He could bend circles around me. LOL
 
readydave8 said:
don't try to drive a ground rod with AL bender
(I don't know if it would have occurred to me to try, wish the guy that did had one instead of breaking mine)
Click to expand...
You need more weight on it to be very successful using it as a rod driver, even more weight than an iron head would have (at least for 1/2 and 3/4 benders). Iron head for 1-1/4 EMT bender maybe starting to get into the weight range that would be good for a rod driver, but chances are the handle is so long it won't drive the rod very deep before it " bottoms out".
 
tortuga said:
Ideal makes a good bender, we had a guy that was a expert bender that refused to use anything other than ideal benders. He could bend circles around me. LOL
Click to expand...
An expert bender... that fills me with excitement and wonder..
Thats a thing? Did he teach you anything cool?
The older ideal alum seems heavier and stronger that recent ones. The heavy one is just more work!
I only like the ideal for its back of bend mark, center mark and leverage between the handle and shoe... didnt the benfield have the handle in a diff spot at 90°? Or maybe handle was vert at 30°? Crs.
 
rambojoe said:
An expert bender... that fills me with excitement and wonder..
Thats a thing? Did he teach you anything cool?
The older ideal alum seems heavier and stronger that recent ones. The heavy one is just more work!
I only like the ideal for its back of bend mark, center mark and leverage between the handle and shoe... didnt the benfield have the handle in a diff spot at 90°? Or maybe handle was vert at 30°? Crs.
Click to expand...
Ideal handle (and many others) is vertical when bend is 30 degrees.
 
kwired said:
Ideal handle (and many others) is vertical when bend is 30 degrees.
Click to expand...
Yessir, im quite clear on ideals.
Cant remember about benfields... something was goofy that i didnt like...
I was a expert wiremold bender as well! Another lost art... and tool!
 
garbo said:
Never liked any Greenlee conduit benders even though our shop had them. Learned on the old iron benfield benders 60 years ago while in grade school helping my sparky dad. Think Ideal bought them out. If you purchase a bender for 1.25" EMT make sure you get the bender that had a two position foot. When bending a 90 degree bend you bend around halve of the bend then reposition the food pedal. Also a lot easier bending 1.25" EMT wearing work boots. Have bent it while wearing sneakers and a lot harder. Another tip when bending 1 & 1.25" conduit makes it easier if you can place end laying in floor to a wall so it does not move. Purchase a conduit level to aid in bending. I used to paint my most often used bender ( 3/4" EMT ) with a couple of coats of bright white paint then use a bright red or orange paint marker to high light the degree & back to back 90 marks. A lot easier to see in dim lighting. I often used the steel door frame to make sure I made perfect 90'S. Not many of my coworkers liked the Greenlee benders.
Click to expand...
Never had a problem ... Got to have the heaviest on the crew to bend it !
 

Attachments

  • Greenlee Bender #2.pdf
    1.7 MB · Views: 13
I went with a Klein. I'm not too sure about the Angle Setter gizmo, and on one side, the angle markings are labeled with the offset multipliers for each angle instead of the angle degree numbers. I haven't seen that on other benders. It will be interesting to see if these features are useful, but I figured I'd go with something different. I did a few bends yesterday, and it does kind of feel different than using an iron head. I do like the light weight of it, though.
1652900659114.png
 
Put a Ramset or Hilti buffer on the end. It will make it quiet when you lean it over and drop on the concrete floor. It fits perfectly tight. 1652910469223.png
 
Buck Parrish said:
We sometimes bend rebar with a Hickey bender. Not sure they make them in Aluminum. Lots of 1/2 and 3/4 rigid bent with mine.
Click to expand...
Would strongly recommend that you have dedicated benders for bending rebar. While working in a large plant mechanics would use our benders to bend 1/2 to 3/4" round stock for fabricating supports for overhead conveyors that were under 4 to 6' wide duct work. Several times they bent the hook on a bender causing problems bending EMT.
 
MiamiValleyelec said:
I saw a guy drop an aluminum head bender and it broke the head. I think the extra $20 is worth the iron
Click to expand...
You are so right. I always like the feel of the heavier iron head benders. The only exception is the 1.25" EMT benders. Both of the ones that I owned were aluminum and had enough weight. Can not remember ever seeing a 1.25" EMT bender made of iron.
 
garbo said:
You are so right. I always like the feel of the heavier iron head benders. The only exception is the 1.25" EMT benders. Both of the ones that I owned were aluminum and had enough weight. Can not remember ever seeing a 1.25" EMT bender made of iron.
Click to expand...
I can't even remember last time seeing 1 1/4 EMT bender w/ two step-power peddle out in the field. (been many years ago). It's all been the "tripple-nickle" set-up for me, above the size 1" EMT..
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top