Newbie Conduit Bender

[Marcus Waddell]

Hey all,
Not new to electrical, but certainly fairly green as to bending conduit. I understand the concept of the box offset and an object offset, but what I don't understand is which one should I do first? I have a 9 inch obstacle to overcome that is on the same plane as the box (basically working around something that is on the wall and in the way of the conduit, so making it rise 9" to overcome that). Do I do the large offset first and then the box offset (which is 90 degrees out of phase with the 9" offset) or vice versa??

Thanks in advance.

 

[LLigetfa]

You don't mention what tool you will use. Different tools have different constraints.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Marcus Waddell]

Sorry... Traditional 1/2" conduit bender.

 

[Fitter30]

Heres a book on what every mark means and the different bends. Pipe bending takes math, pocket level with a good magnet and patience. Theres also videos on utube. With 1/2" it is the most forgiving and the pipe is inexpensive because its easy to mess a bend up. Takes practice .
http://www.elliottelectric.com/StaticPages/ElectricalReferences/Guides/EMT_coduit_bending_guide.aspx

 

[slowgsr]

It comes with experience, how far away is the 9" obstacle, sometimes when a conduit leave a the box it makes an offset in a few feet say off the wall into a beam, and its easier to bend, line it up in place and mark where the centre of the box offset is, otherwise you can't always get it in the right place with regards to a rolling offset, but.... You need enough conduit let to make the bend, 1/2 isn't too bad but on 1" you need more, and you don't want to tweak what you've already done when its up in the air behind the bender and your trying to pull.

Anyways, I've been doing lots of conduit work for 20 years now, I'm still learning.

Depending on the job ill mount the conduit on standoffs so I don't need offsets, but they stick out from the wall, the offsets just make pulling harder, or ill put up unistrut and use clips, drill my boxes so everything is straight in.

Always think about the wire pull, and the guys pulling the wire it may not be you! Especially if point A is 30feet on a deck, and point B is 30 feet on a deck 100 feet away and you only have one boom!