Ken9876
Senior Member
- Location
- Jersey Shore
Does anyone have any tricks for bending 3/4" RMC by hand. I had to bend a 7" offset and a 90 in a 53" length today and man what a pain.
Bending RMC
- Thread starter Ken9876
- Start date
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Cow
Senior Member
- Location
- Eastern Oregon
- Occupation
- Electrician
It's all in the foot pressure, helps to put the pipe end against a wall. Try to refrain from grabbing onto the end of the pipe and pulling it up to 90 instead of using foot pressure. That'll really screw up your stub lengths. Bending offsets is easier on platform where you can get the first bend off the ground. For bigger offsets sometimes I make the first bend handle up, start the second bend handle down until the pipe will lay flat, then finish it handle up with the pipe on the ground.
Something else too, I've bent quite a bit of 3/4" RMC and some of it lately has bent really hard.
Then other times it bends about like it should, a little tough but nothing you can't overcome.
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Ken9876
Senior Member
- Location
- Jersey Shore
Your right this stuff was hard, trying to keep the offset level while making the 90 was a pain. Couldn't keep enough foot pressure and keep the offset in place.
electricalperson
Senior Member
- Location
- massachusetts
eat your wheaties
Fulthrotl
~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
- Occupation
- E
a chicago bender.....and like everyone said, weight on the shoe if you don't
have a chicago bender. fat is your friend here. i want to balance all my
weight on the shoe when i start the bend... it's still not gonna be as
tight as you'll get with a chicago bender, but there ya are.... a chinese
hickey won't hurt either, if you have to make really tight stuff....
Your pliers laid flat are almost a perfect match for the hook on the shoe...your set will lay incredibly flat.
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
What if you made the 90 first, then bent the offset up in the air with the handle down, like with EMT?
If you're running a lot of small rigid you need to have 2 hickeys on the job. If you stick one end of the rigid into one of the hickeys, and work the stick with the other hicket, you can bend incredibly tight. Don't forget, a lot of times the holes in a tri-stand work really good too.
- Location
- Simi Valley, CA
When I first started in the trades I probably weighed all of 140 pounds give or take. One day my boss hands me two sticks of 1" RMC and a hickey and tells me to go by this job and just bend two 90's and stick them in the footing and get back. An hour later and finally with the help of the guy doing the footings I got the 90's bent in the pipe.
Ken9876
Senior Member
- Location
- Jersey Shore
We have a Greenlee 883 at the NJDOT were I work we just don't have the 3/4 shoe. Called Greenlee today about the chicago bender they gave me a list price of $5000. Might be hard to swing by the managers being money is tight, but I'd like to take on all the work there giving to the contractors.
Cow
Senior Member
- Location
- Eastern Oregon
- Occupation
- Electrician
I agree with tkb. For more than a just a few bends, I usually bring the little Greenlee chicago with me too. I'm surprised it's 5k, maybe you can get a used one off Ebay or Craigslist. As long as all the pieces are there, there's really not a whole lot you can wear out. Make sure it still has the "deduct" sticker on the face of the bender, if not, you can get a replacement from Greenlee.
EDIT: I actually think ours is an 1818, it's an older model looks like, bends rigid up to 1 1/2."
EDIT: I actually think ours is an 1818, it's an older model looks like, bends rigid up to 1 1/2."
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Fulthrotl
~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
- Occupation
- E
a chicago bender isn't $5k....
they are $1,141.00 brand new.
and here is a used one, for sale no less, in chicago.... $400
http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/bfs/958883906.html
Ken9876
Senior Member
- Location
- Jersey Shore
I was looking at a Greenlee Chicago style ratching bender, they told me the list was 5000
That must be the 1818 that has changable shoes for RGS and EMT.
Mechanical Bender for 3/4" through 2" EMT conduit, 1/2" through 1-1/4" IMC conduit and 1/2" through 1-1/2" Rigid and aluminum conduit
Tool Up has it for $4139.99 http://www.toolup.com/greenlee/1818.html
The 1800 is for 1/2 to 1" RMC only.
Tool Up has it for $973.45 http://www.toolup.com/Greenlee/1800.html
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