Bending RMC

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Ken9876 said:
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.
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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.:rolleyes: Then other times it bends about like it should, a little tough but nothing you can't overcome.
 
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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.
 
Put a coupler & another stick of pipe on the other end to increase the overall length. That will give you more leverage.
 
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Ken9876 said:
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.
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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....
 
Ken9876 said:
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.
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Your pliers laid flat are almost a perfect match for the hook on the shoe...your set will lay incredibly flat.
 
Ken9876 said:
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.
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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.
 
My favorite bender for small rigid is the Greenlee 1800 chicago bender.

But I am sure that this is not an option for the OP.
 
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.:D
 
tkb said:
My favorite bender for small rigid is the Greenlee 1800 chicago bender.

But I am sure that this is not an option for the OP.
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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.
 
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."
 
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The 1800 has no shoes and only bends 1/2, 3/4 and 1" rigid.
Works great for small stuff. You can't hurt it. and no parts to lose.
 
Ken9876 said:
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.
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a chicago bender isn't $5k....

they are $1,141.00 brand new.

5500.gif


and here is a used one, for sale no less, in chicago.... $400

http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/bfs/958883906.html
 
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