How to bend conduit

[ldj]

I want to bend some conduit but need a radius about 1/2 of what the conduit benders do that I have saw.

 

[IOWA NORTHEAST]

Fill it with sand, but this is a hit and miss way.

 

[Uncle Ernie]

The radius of a bend is fixed to allow the bend to pull easy and have the correct diameter for the rated fill of wire.
You can buy boxes that will let you make sharper turns but these have covers and the pull must be restarted each box.

 

[Anonymous-0]

You'll probably end up kinking it. Conduit benders are designed for about the smallest radius than can be bent without kinking. Dave

 

[Dick L]

Here is what you need.
For Short Bends

 

[Dusty MI]

Are you bending thin wall/EMT or ridge conduit (like galvanized water pipe)? If ridge then what Dick L shows will work. If EMT good luck. Maybe you might use a v-belt pulley that the EMT will lay in and keep the sides from kinking. Or filling with sand as mentioned, That is a very very old method.

You didn't say what size of conduit you are wanting to bend.

Dusty

 

[msb]

Use an ellbee (sp?)

 

[ldj]

it is EMT 3/4"

 

[Dick L]

I have bent a lot of EMT with one of those. Mostly to step up or down or in or out to clear other pipes or conduit, also wall offsets. I might have to admit to a few kinks when in a hurry. You can bent sweeps with it also buy making little short bends moving the bender along the conduit a little at a time to make them a tighter sweep than the standard bender.
I really wouldn't want to run a lot of conduit without both.

 

[bison]

i needed to bend 1/2 hydr tubing in a smaller than standard radius,i ended up making a bender using the smallest 1/2 steel cable sheave i could find.
works better than a v belt pulley cause it wont deform the tubing

 

[Plane Bart]

To bend EMT Conduit run down to your Home Depot and get a 3/4" EMT Bender the Hickey Bender that was shown is mostly for Rigid conduit
Conduit bending is all math
on the side of the bender it will show the Take up That is what you deduct for a 90 degree bend
3/4" EMT has a 6" take up so if you want a 10 inch 90 mark your conduit 10" back and deduct 6" place the bender on the the 6" mark at the arrow and bend it now here is the tricky part USE Foot Pressure not the handel for the bend or you will kink it.
for off sets useually there is a chart on the bender handel that shows you what distance apart to make your bends for an off set
for 30 degree bends your multiplier is (2) so on a 6 inch off set your marks would be 12 inches apart.
45 degree bends are bent useing 1.4 as a multiplier.
I am not going to get into 3 and 4 point saddel bends to long to explain
the multipliers are all the same for any size conduit when bending offsets
try googeling Bendfeild Jack Bendfeild designed the best conduit bender and has great info for bending conduits
Be sure to bend on a level surface use a level for degreebends but there are visual marks on the side of the bender 3/4" is easy you can hand bend a offset to straighten it out if you dogleg it
Good Luck
Master Electrician who has never put sand in a conduit to bend it and I have bent EMT, PVC, Rigid, PVC Coated Rigid, IMC, Alum conduit and Brass conduits.
FYI Ream out the end of conduit before you innstall it a Burr or rough edge will cut the wire insulation and cause a short

 

[bc]

Last time I was at a big box store (day before yesterday), they had a conduit bender available for people to use. One of the guys will help. Just buy a $3 joint of emt and bend it instead of buying the $40 bender, unless you do a lot of bending.

 

[guido]

Hello,
You can fill the tube with sand first. It may be some work, but the sand will make a very nice bend, keeps the tubing from collapsing.
Guido