Tips on bending 2" pvc?

Status
Not open for further replies.
frankft2000

frankft2000

Senior Member
Location
Maine
I have a greenlee hot box, and I've been playing with bending 2" 90's. I'm not having any luck. I spin the conduit intill its on the verge of turning brown (sometimes I don't stop in time!) The 2" still kinks. I have capes the ends of the pvc to keep the heat in, and I keep spinning the pipe to keep the heat even. Are there any other tips that you may have. The hotbox works great for smaller conduit and for 2" offsets.
 
I use factory 90s if they are going to show or I slide the pipe back and forth while turning it and end up with a nice large radius 90.
 
Unless you don't have a factory ninety with you it's going to cost you more in labor than two couplings a factory ninety.
 
I guess I got in the habbit of seeing EMT, and when you see a factory 90 it seems like they cheated instead of bending one.
 
frankft2000 said:
I guess I got in the habbit of seeing EMT, and when you see a factory 90 it seems like they cheated instead of bending one.
Click to expand...
I know what you mean about factory emt ninety's in the 1 1/4 and down but above 1 1/4 emt if you don't have a bender or only a few ninety's to install who cares?
 
Try putting some 1-1/4" (Greenfield) FMC in the 2" PVC before you bend it. Start to cool the PVC with wet rags and carefully remove the (HOT!) flex from the pipe. Squeeze any "egging" out with DRY gloves.
 
here what you need to do to stop it from kinking. plug the ends of the conduit. greenlee makes conduit plugs but they are expensive so i just use duct tape. you need to make a large radius 90
 
If it's a 90 degree bend - then a factory bend. Anything in between, and one of those heat blankets are the "nutz"! Bought one for a 3" service I had (also have to run two 2" - one for phone, one for cable) and we had a few sweeps to get around a few things and it worked great. Have used it several times.
 
The smaller greenlee hot box is going to be challenging. Move it back and forth while rolling. Have a wet rag handy. Once it is flexible over the distance of your 90 slowly bend it. Take it slow instead of trying to get the 90 all at once. If it starts to kink you can try rolling it and rebending it in slowly. Once you get your 90 hit it with the wet rag while trying to keep it round as possible. Key is to go a little slow on it.
 
If I know I'm going to be bending a lot of offsets and such in the bigger PVC, I'll throw a shoe for the hydraulic bender on the truck to form the warm PVC in. Works like a champ, and you can get more predictable offsets, etc.
 
I have always found the heat blankets to easier, and more consistent. THey might take some more time to heat up, but I just usually find something else to do while thats going on.
 
I only bend PVC of any size if I absolutely have to.

I haven't used the hot box in over a decade when my UG missed the panel wall by about 6".

You can do a lot with factory fittings and planning ahead.....and measuring properly.
 
mdshunk said:
If I know I'm going to be bending a lot of offsets and such in the bigger PVC, I'll throw a shoe for the hydraulic bender on the truck to form the warm PVC in. Works like a champ, and you can get more predictable offsets, etc.
Click to expand...
Thats a good idea I never thought of that.
 
When I was in votech there was this one fellow from south africa that showed us how they would fill the pipe with sand (I dont remember how he temporaraly sealed it) and then they would heat the pipe and then bend it with the sand and he made some real tight 90's. He used a hotbends pipe bender. Kind of similar to the tool they use to tar roofs.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top