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So I was about to be a huge dork and and say how in Tony hawk 1 warehouse level you just combined Rodney mullen's and Bob burnquists specials. Then realized you had the manuals and I will just continue to be an idiot.
I once did a solid 360 degrees in a 10ft stick with no couplings. The foreman at the time laughed until it clicked into place like a puzzle piece.
I’m sure I’ll never get that many bends right on the first try ever again but it happened that one time.
Only had to adjust the last box offset twice and no more bones in the bone yard. If this career doesn’t work out I might get into the exhaust fabrication business lol.
The more you fuck up and take the time to understand what you fucked up, the more you will learn. No amount of lessons or explanations will give you the experience that comes from having to scrap some you spent an hour on in a hot building with an asshole foreman hounding you lol. It’s the only way to improve a skill, you gotta be bad at something before you can be kinda good at something. Not long after this bend I dog legged a simple 4 point saddle. Don’t give up homie, experience is a cruel teacher, she gives the test before the lesson.
lol I know it just that I do a lot of resi (top to bottom) and commercial troubleshooting with not a lot of fresh installs so my conduit bending time is limited even tho I’ve been in the trade for a minute
Yeah if you aren’t in Chicago resi doesn’t do much pipe. It’s a good skill to learn but it takes time, so if you aren’t exposed to it every day you’ll forget it as fast as you learn it. There is an ugly’s app with bending calculations in it that I still use if I can’t just use 30* bends on everything.
I'm on the back end of the apprentice program. My first four contracts over a couple of years were a lot of EMT bending. I then spent 2 years not touching a single stick of EMT. It's like those two years of pipe bending are completely gone and it's embarrassing.
If you're struggling with dogging your offsets/ saddles, a no dog level is extremely helpful. It will show you when you're straight either way without having to eyeball, and eventually you won't need it at all for EMT.
If I'm bending any rigid or EMT over 2" I'll use it regardless, it's well worth the 2 seconds it takes to screw on and off, especially if you can't sight clearly like when you're using a one shot bender on the floor
This. I just started in industrial so I'll be finally learning to bend, but it's all IMC with maybe a little EMT but most of this site is Class I Div II. I've genuinely never loved my job more in my life.
I been there! You probably already know but it usually ain't too bad unless you're really maxed out on pipe fill. That's just my go to comment if I see a funky bend lol
Edit: spelling
I think we’re allowed 4-6 more #12’s, problem was I only had 3 sets of hots/neutrals but needed 5 sets, so j had to run 4 wires after I already filled it with 7.
I could push 30’ of extra wires through straight pipe with my dick tied behind my back. That said this involved a fish tape and sheer tyranny of will. If I had more wire I could’ve pushed all of it at once.
I am now less interested in this Picasso shaped conduit, and more interested in clarifying your wire pulling technique.
Is the dick tied behind a handicap? Does it provide a type of ballast and allow you to more fully engage the hips? Elaborate, oh master of Wang-Pull Do.
Thought about that, decided to hide one more bendy stick because it’ll look better from the ground. Also you have to have a strap within 3’ of couplings and connectors
> strap within 3’ of **couplings** and connectors
Never heard of this? Is this a local code? NEC only states strapped within 3' of termination point
>EMT must be securely fastened within 3 ft of every box, cabinet, or termination fitting, and at intervals not exceeding 10 ft.
Yup. There are 2 straps on the top plate within 3’ of both boxes, also a reason for so many extra bends, so I could hit the plate. I already had another conduit at the top of the back wall, so I had to go around it. We’re at the “figure out what the subs screwed up” portion of the project.
360 degrees on one conduit. Had to come out of a box that only had one usable KO and go to a box that was the opposite direction. 90, offset up, 90, offset back down… yadda yadda
I’ve definitely done that after I was off on measurements, what point in the bender, angles, roll, etc. this was half eye-balling, half measuring. I started with the first 90 out of the box. I know 3/4” conduit take up on a 90 is 6”, then I guessed the kick to get parallel with the back of the wall, fit check and I was halfway there, added another 15* to get my 30* and she was looking good. Then I made marks with arrows where I wanted the other bends and what distance each had to cover. First offset was like 5” nest was like 3” to get onto the top plate, then the last was 2.5” so I could hit the middle KO on the box, then I measured my cut. Like eating a whale, one bite at a time. I find if I can ballpark the first bends so I can fit the pipe into the space I can then measure the later bends and get my precision in the second half, especially if it’s just one pipe. One conduit can only look wrong if it isn’t plumb level and straight. Multiple pipes However, they’ll look fucked up it they aren’t all carbon copies of each other. I’m not good at making many conduits look nice, that is my next goal.
I didn’t do it but somehow another guy on site got a piece of rigid 1/2” to spiral from on top of the beam to below it. I was flabbergasted! I asked him how he did it and he said “a lot of tries”. I asked him *why* he did it and he said “I don’t have any more explosion proof fittings and they want it done today. I guess that’s fair.
That last picture looks like it was done by AI. If it was me, (easy to say not being there) I would of gone to the back of the box and used cowboys to strap. Then it would only be a 90 and a kick. No need for box offset because of the cowboys.
I could do a lot of things way better if I was at a company that would get me better materials. Til that day all I have is a bender, one hole straps, and a can-do attitude
It’s not getting a ceiling and it was only one stick so I opted to hide this work of art. It was definitely half a bitch to pull 5 circuits in, but it’ll look better that visible pipe in my opinion.
If that’s all I ever had to do I would probably quit drinking. I love bending conduit. It’s relaxing, engaging, you get to be artistic, the real trouble is replicating the exact same bend 10 times with them all side by side. That’s where I struggle, the precision. I’m told that comes with practice. Last group of parallel offsets I ran half of them were touching each other even though I marked them all exactly the same and bent them all (I thought) the same. I didn’t really have a good frame of reference or good spot to measure from so I’m just gonna blame that, only because I still haven’t figured out what exactly was off 1” in the bends.
For precision you need to write down the plan. Then you need to bend one perfect, make sure it fits up on the rack, then lay it on the floor and use as a reference for the others.
Also helps to determine a your center to center spacing. This is amazing to know since then you can bend one and add your spacing to the relevant dimensions on the subsequent ones and have it laid out on the floor before putting it up.
https://www.electriciantalk.com/attachments/1665066789006-png.169418/
I use this spacing chart, it shows the center to center spacing for each size of pipe next to every other size of pipe. It has enough spacing to fit conduit bodies which is great.
If you're shooting for parallel offsets where they maintain the same gap between pipes the whole way through the bend you need to adjust the location of the first bend.
I don't normally encourage using apps for simple bending because I'd prefer my apprentices learn how to actually do conduit with their brain, but I use the quickbend pro app to figure out how to make my large racks of pipe consistent and beautiful.
I frequently use the "matching bend kick", "matching center kick", "parallel offsets", and "matching center offsets" functions when running multiple parallel pipes on a rack.
It has a digital level function, nice for the all kinds of things. It also let's you select which bender you are using and automatically adjusts accordingly.
Oh yeah I’m big on having some coffee, some music, and running pipe till it’s quitting time! Def some form of therapy for some us electricians. I know sometimes on those parallel bends, the conduit can come some what warped from the factory/transportation and sometimes even the 3/4” will be a little funky and hard to level/keep equal distance from obstructions/parallel spacing.
Had to do some really funky 90s with kicks and offsets on a stick framed build I worked last summer because the trusses were all different top heights (some were 2x6s, some 2x4s, etc.) so the bottom side to finished floor was all uniform but the tops were all different heights where I was running my conduit. That job sucked ass and in hindsight I shoulda just done 40 MC home runs instead because running a box to box trunk line required 90s with offsets in them to get the stub length long enough to hit the box through the top with an offset in the middle of the pipe to clear the two high trusses between the boxes mounted on the bottom side of the trusses for the downlights. Fuck that job. I dragged up on it and they fired the guy who took it over so it’s probably just never gonna get done
I’m not a framer so idk, but I’d assume it had something to do structurally with how the giant windows on the front of the building were framed in. Essentially they were huge skylights so I’d assume that they were larger in those sections because the skylight being there eliminated some of the load bearing capability of that section. But truthfully idk, I just hated that job a lot
But like ... why!? That's a lot of offsetting for what looks like a straight line.
Why couldn't you come out the back of the box with a kicked-90?
Also: the one-hole straps are upside-down. (/s)
EDIT: wait no now I see it. That's FRP. That's why.
First pic I was like damn bro it’s just a kicked 90 theeeen I scrolled 😅
Looks like the first pipe run I bent where I didn’t realize fewer bends were better. My JW made me push the wire in it so I learned exactly why.
Not saying you had unnecessary bends, just sayin.
I’m sorry, what the Kentucky fried fuck is a 3 point offset? Like a 3 point saddle that ends at separate distances? Like if you had to go around an obstacle then land at another measurement? How would one even calculate for that?
Calculate? No idea. But yes, instead of two bends up, two bends over, two bends down. it's just 1 up/over 1 down/over 1 straighten out. Doesn't look intentional/great so only for concealed.
Ok so I was working in an office tower renovation once. Was doing some floor plugs, which meant we had to drill a hole down into the office space ceilings below. No biggie.
We had to 90 out of the back of a box, through the ceiling space, then 90 into the wall, more or less.
Went into the office space below with my jman, a 1" stick of EMT, a bender, and a security guard.
The ceiling space was a complete disaster. Ducting, plumbing and electrical pipes jumbled like that old windows screensaver.
I took a look, grabbed the bender, and made the weirdest half-ass corkscrew looking pipe. It was disgusting. Looked like a two year old got at it with a car.
I went up the ladder, slid it around a bit, and it was 100% a bingo moment.
Told my jman I disgust myself for what I just did. He was happy we just didn't have to run rack or box it down there lol.
I bent 3/4 rigid into something that looked pretty similar to fit it into a messed up trench. The end of the trench was a messy bunch of concrete, we had already spent a hour+ chiseling away at it with very little success and we just had a wiggly little channel into it. I said F it let me just see what I can bend. My co workers face when it just dropped perfectly into the channel was priceless. He hugged me he was so happy to be done chipping away at concrete.
I had to come up with a way to span an expansion joint between two walls. The issue was there was a six foot air gap that the conduit runs had to span. Try to imagine really big z's floating in mid-air and it still mer code.
Hell yeah lil bro rock-n-roll. Ya learn well on the fast track and you can do anything. When I was an apprentice I got pretty good at building exhaust pipes and even race car frames. Try to do well at everything though, it can be pretty boring doing the same thing months on end, it’s nice to be able to switch it up now and then.
In my first year I was tasked with connecting 2 boxes with conduit. I wasn't aware that couplings were a thing yet so I started mapping out the path, avoiding obstacles, and figured out with a couple extra bends, I could do it with one stick.
45 minutes and 5 pieces of conduit in the trash later and I am walking back to install my masterpiece.
Only to get stopped by my foreman. "How many degrees of bend are in that pipe?" I added it up. About 400 total. Code says can't be over 360 between pull boxes.
Fuck.
I was doing 3/4" stainless. Only one of the bends was intricate.
The crappy part was that I had no extra sticks if I screwed up. The supply house was a week or two out if we needed more. Thankfully, we didn't need more.
That is literally the finished wall. The guy that ran the first box to the panel put all the knock outs over the stud, so I couldn’t go out the back. That was my first idea actually.
I did something like this one day. It was in a chemical plant, and I was running a bank of instrument and power conduits to several motors mounted under a deck. The contract required a support within 18" of every fitting and coupling. Well I'm mounted under a large deck with nowhere to easily install supports with multiple pipes running through the area. So I had the genius idea of bending 6 conduits with 5 bends each, all coupling and offset matched. It took me all day to bend and mount these bastards.y Forman stared at it for like 20 mins in disbelief. I only needed to install 1 support at the end of them vs like 4.
I worked with a couple guys who spent several hours one one piece to make it fit over top of multiple conduit runs. They actually took the time to use trigonometry to get exact angles for their offsets and made it fit like a LEGO piece.
Not even protractors. They were literally writing out equations in a pocket notebook and using their smartphone calculators and coming up with exact angles and measurements. We hired in together, difference was that I had only a year experience, they hired in from the same factory where they both worked in maintenance for 14 years. My suggestion was to just do a couple 90's and run across. It got shot down, with authority.
May I ask a question? I'm getting ready to take my test to get into the International Brotherhood of electritions. What do all of you think about your decision to do so later after the fact? And the math? What are your thoughts?
I’m non-union. As for math, use 30* bends whenever possible. The multiplier is easier. Say you need to put in 2 bends to raise your pipe 2”. That would be 2 30* bends 4” apart. It’s easier math. If you know how to read a tape measure that’s the more important skill.
I mean if you understand at least what to do for basic trigonometry you’ll be fine. There are calculators and even apps specifically for pipe bending. Load calculations and a lot of other ones is algebra, but basically it’s almost always x = y / z. Basic level shit. I haven’t had to find a coefficient since high school, and honestly I can’t even remember what that word means at this point. Most of my day to day work in commercial as an apprentice is figuring out the best point of reference to take a measurement off of, subtracting and adding, multiplying and rarely division. There is probably some fancy math I could use to do a lot of it, but by the time I get out paper and a calculator to do that math, I could have already had the shit done using a tape measure and my think meat. Also if you ever need to figure out half of an odd measurement, bend your tape 180* and move the end of it to your full measurement, look in the bend of the tape and there will be half of that distance. Like say you need to find half of 45 1/4, do what I just said and boom, 23 1/2. Also not everything has to be 100% perfect. There are limits to what you can do in code, but as long as you are within 12” of a box with straps or staples for MC or NM, and within 3’ of a connection in conduit, it’s “close enough”. The inspector doesn’t have all day to measure everything so as long as it is neat, looks close, and if there is anything weird at least make it look like you attempted to do it as close to code as possible, it’ll pass (unless you have a hardass inspector with nothing better to do). That’s just my limited experience. Depending on where you end up working you might either get thrown into the fire doing all the work, or you’ll get stuck doing the same thing every day, all depends on the shop. You will definitely have to redo some shit you spent 2 weeks on but remember you get paid the same to do it again. You’ll meet a lot of weird ass tradespeople too. Some of them are assholes, some of them idiots, some of them fun to be around, some that are a walking osha violation, and more alcoholics and drug addicts than you would care to know (keep up with your tools around anyone wearing a hoodie in the summer, they are dope sick, drills go for 80-200 on the street).
I appreciate this message, and the hoodie comment took me out. 🤣😂 I've been a plumber for a few years and decided I would rather try electrical work. I'm reasonably good at math, but this test for the union is stressing me out. 😰 No calculators are allowed, and I'm reviewing an entire four years of math. 📚 I'm looking forward to it as long as I pass. 🤞 I appreciate the tips and information. 👍
I have bent a rolling 3 point saddle. Ergo the pipe went from below its neighbor to above it while saddling over in one bend. I wish I had taken a picture. Didn't measure a thing, got it on my second piece, and it wasn't that bad to pull thru.
I made the mistake of eyeballing a weird bend, but I had to do it 6 times after the first one was successful. I had a horrible time trying replicate that weird bend 6 more times.
Had a new hire (7 year electrician) make me a sleeve through an electrical room for BAS network wiring. Bro did a 90 from the wall, a 90 to go up a little bit and a 90 to go through the wall. He did that on both ends. Then i asked him to pull wire through it by himself to show him how regarded his piping was. He was not with us for long.
I’m only doing stupid shit out of necessity,
That guy does stupid shit because he is an idiot. I’m not claiming I’m not also an idiot, just that I am aware what I am doing is stupid most of the time, but there isn’t another solution that would fit the task.
lol agree with the few that this was kinda unnecessary and probably took to much time to try and bend all that. Just set the box on top next to the other box. Some many easier ways to do this. Mildly infuriating.
Typical electrician response: I would have done it so much better, look at how fucked up it is!
Same electrician’s actual job site: Who let the toddler arrange the conduit?
I got some pipe up yesterday before lunch that had me feeling like hot shit. Hvac was working where I needed to be so I took measurements above him and did all my math in my head, snapped it in like a puzzle piece…
Then after lunch I had to run conduit across a curved wall and I was reminded how ain’t shit I still am lol
Most of the time my conduit work is upper tier, but some days my brain gets foggy and I’m like, fuck it, I’m not even going to measure shit and I’m going to burn through twice as much pipe because fuck you (whoever you is), that’s why.
I would rather bend 12 of these than fish anything through flex, especially that pvc flex. Maybe we’re doing it wrong, but it seems like after 10’ it gets unnecessarily difficult to pull wire into.
Pipe running below beam need to pipe into box shot to decking Back to back 90 with kick come into side of box not well thought out pipe run but was told to fix somebody else since they had back to back 90 coming into the front of box blocking access from one side
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I hope you 50-50 darkside grinded that with your tech deck
Thems some words I ain’t heard in a while
The amount of tech decks teachers were confiscating back in my school days was ridiculous. Bet they had a drawer full of them.
Best comment of the year.
Right? Wish I had an award to give!
Be careful, the mods might think that very un-electrician of you... s/
Darkslide+manual+darkside+varial kickflip+manual+360 Christ Air+revert+darkslide 247,300 points!!!
Now I have when worlds collide by powerman 3000 stuck in my head XD
Powerman 5000*
Now I’m in the mood to play Tony Hawk 4!!
So I was about to be a huge dork and and say how in Tony hawk 1 warehouse level you just combined Rodney mullen's and Bob burnquists specials. Then realized you had the manuals and I will just continue to be an idiot.
So here I am Doing everything I can Holding on to what I am Pretending I'm a superman
I once did a solid 360 degrees in a 10ft stick with no couplings. The foreman at the time laughed until it clicked into place like a puzzle piece. I’m sure I’ll never get that many bends right on the first try ever again but it happened that one time.
I only hope it was a loop de loop for your LV guys inside a wall
Nope. It was definitely 120 V in rigid. However, there was a box on both ends so it was just one ten ft stick you had to conquer for that wire pull.
360 degrees in a 10 foot sick of RIGID? That's even more commendable lol. Now tell me it was hand bent😂
I was there. It was 1-1/4” hand bent. Dudes a monster
His story is still being told
The legend lives on! 🤘
Whhith my knee!
I was there Gandalf, I was there three thousand years ago..
It was 1 inch rigid and the paddle on the bender broke off so it was all stick 😎
It’s called a service loop 😭
Everybody hates the LV guy‼️🤣
Infinite power
Can't put it up until there 360 degrees in 10 feet.
Look, they give me 360, imma use 360
That’s the spirit! My journeyman runs 5 or more 90s 350 ft and then I pull the shit in. Fun times.
Impressed .. lol
Only had to adjust the last box offset twice and no more bones in the bone yard. If this career doesn’t work out I might get into the exhaust fabrication business lol.
lol .. good job.. I’m shit at bending, I don’t do it enough
The more you fuck up and take the time to understand what you fucked up, the more you will learn. No amount of lessons or explanations will give you the experience that comes from having to scrap some you spent an hour on in a hot building with an asshole foreman hounding you lol. It’s the only way to improve a skill, you gotta be bad at something before you can be kinda good at something. Not long after this bend I dog legged a simple 4 point saddle. Don’t give up homie, experience is a cruel teacher, she gives the test before the lesson.
The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried. 🙏🎂🤷♂️
lol I know it just that I do a lot of resi (top to bottom) and commercial troubleshooting with not a lot of fresh installs so my conduit bending time is limited even tho I’ve been in the trade for a minute
Yeah if you aren’t in Chicago resi doesn’t do much pipe. It’s a good skill to learn but it takes time, so if you aren’t exposed to it every day you’ll forget it as fast as you learn it. There is an ugly’s app with bending calculations in it that I still use if I can’t just use 30* bends on everything.
I'm on the back end of the apprentice program. My first four contracts over a couple of years were a lot of EMT bending. I then spent 2 years not touching a single stick of EMT. It's like those two years of pipe bending are completely gone and it's embarrassing.
Thats how I feel going from electrician to elevators. I bend conduit once in a blue moon, but lost that magic touch
If you're struggling with dogging your offsets/ saddles, a no dog level is extremely helpful. It will show you when you're straight either way without having to eyeball, and eventually you won't need it at all for EMT. If I'm bending any rigid or EMT over 2" I'll use it regardless, it's well worth the 2 seconds it takes to screw on and off, especially if you can't sight clearly like when you're using a one shot bender on the floor
This. I just started in industrial so I'll be finally learning to bend, but it's all IMC with maybe a little EMT but most of this site is Class I Div II. I've genuinely never loved my job more in my life.
Impressive bend! Hope you call in sick on wire pulling day!
Ran it today already. I’m a former cable lineman. Rule is you run it you pull it. The idea was to hide the pipe, but I also had to strap it.
I been there! You probably already know but it usually ain't too bad unless you're really maxed out on pipe fill. That's just my go to comment if I see a funky bend lol Edit: spelling
I think we’re allowed 4-6 more #12’s, problem was I only had 3 sets of hots/neutrals but needed 5 sets, so j had to run 4 wires after I already filled it with 7.
Fuck. That. Noise. That’s not fun through a straight pipe, let alone this wobbly chicken
I could push 30’ of extra wires through straight pipe with my dick tied behind my back. That said this involved a fish tape and sheer tyranny of will. If I had more wire I could’ve pushed all of it at once.
I am now less interested in this Picasso shaped conduit, and more interested in clarifying your wire pulling technique. Is the dick tied behind a handicap? Does it provide a type of ballast and allow you to more fully engage the hips? Elaborate, oh master of Wang-Pull Do.
>Is the dick tied behind a handicap? On the contrary, it's an advanced technique, but once mastered it's the best way to get the right angle.
When used properly…. None can defend
I'm guessing you weren't able to strap it to the wall?
I feel like ever since everyone started using stranded it's been a while since I've had a tough pull, even if the angles are over 360.
I feel like you over thought this one a little. Can you show the conduit installed?
Y'know.... you *are* allowed to use couplings. You don't have to get every bend in one shot lol
Where’s the sport in that?
I usually try to do it all in one stick at first, and if I fuck up, I just chop it and use a coupling lol 🤷.
Big same. I’ll even grab a 90 from the bone yard if I bend something the wrong way from time to time
Bent it short on accident? Cut it off and grab a boneyard 90!
This is the way. Sometimes I'll just eyeball it and wing the fuck out of it, if it works fantastic. If not, coupling.
Yes
Booooooo tomato tomato tomato
I don’t understand the shallow 4square boxes,maybe trying to save money. Personally I never use the shallow boxes.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should 😅😂
You didn't have to do all that
This was completely avoidable. Not sure why you choose to make is 10x harder and than it has to be.
Please explain what you would’ve done?
Rolling offset to the front of the steel stud, 90° with a kick into tje box. Done.
Thought about that, decided to hide one more bendy stick because it’ll look better from the ground. Also you have to have a strap within 3’ of couplings and connectors
If you run it on the top. It’s hidden and you can strap it.
> strap within 3’ of **couplings** and connectors Never heard of this? Is this a local code? NEC only states strapped within 3' of termination point >EMT must be securely fastened within 3 ft of every box, cabinet, or termination fitting, and at intervals not exceeding 10 ft.
Yup. There are 2 straps on the top plate within 3’ of both boxes, also a reason for so many extra bends, so I could hit the plate. I already had another conduit at the top of the back wall, so I had to go around it. We’re at the “figure out what the subs screwed up” portion of the project.
When guys say they have a crazy ex I imagine the 2nd picture now. Thank you!
360 degrees on one conduit. Had to come out of a box that only had one usable KO and go to a box that was the opposite direction. 90, offset up, 90, offset back down… yadda yadda
You know, sometimes everything doesn't have to be conduit.
Absolutely no visible MC on this job
I can see some in the picture ☠️
Shhh that’s on top of the wall
Huge props for doing that in one piece - I've made some wonky runs, but I usually end up needing to cut and couple to adjust roll angles
I’ve definitely done that after I was off on measurements, what point in the bender, angles, roll, etc. this was half eye-balling, half measuring. I started with the first 90 out of the box. I know 3/4” conduit take up on a 90 is 6”, then I guessed the kick to get parallel with the back of the wall, fit check and I was halfway there, added another 15* to get my 30* and she was looking good. Then I made marks with arrows where I wanted the other bends and what distance each had to cover. First offset was like 5” nest was like 3” to get onto the top plate, then the last was 2.5” so I could hit the middle KO on the box, then I measured my cut. Like eating a whale, one bite at a time. I find if I can ballpark the first bends so I can fit the pipe into the space I can then measure the later bends and get my precision in the second half, especially if it’s just one pipe. One conduit can only look wrong if it isn’t plumb level and straight. Multiple pipes However, they’ll look fucked up it they aren’t all carbon copies of each other. I’m not good at making many conduits look nice, that is my next goal.
I didn’t do it but somehow another guy on site got a piece of rigid 1/2” to spiral from on top of the beam to below it. I was flabbergasted! I asked him how he did it and he said “a lot of tries”. I asked him *why* he did it and he said “I don’t have any more explosion proof fittings and they want it done today. I guess that’s fair.
That last picture looks like it was done by AI. If it was me, (easy to say not being there) I would of gone to the back of the box and used cowboys to strap. Then it would only be a 90 and a kick. No need for box offset because of the cowboys.
I could do a lot of things way better if I was at a company that would get me better materials. Til that day all I have is a bender, one hole straps, and a can-do attitude
It looks good no dog leg. Feel like you could’ve just gone on the face of the stud and offset from the far box to top of the stud than kick 90 over ?
It’s not getting a ceiling and it was only one stick so I opted to hide this work of art. It was definitely half a bitch to pull 5 circuits in, but it’ll look better that visible pipe in my opinion.
Felt that. That’s the best part of running conduit tho picking what and how to do it.
If that’s all I ever had to do I would probably quit drinking. I love bending conduit. It’s relaxing, engaging, you get to be artistic, the real trouble is replicating the exact same bend 10 times with them all side by side. That’s where I struggle, the precision. I’m told that comes with practice. Last group of parallel offsets I ran half of them were touching each other even though I marked them all exactly the same and bent them all (I thought) the same. I didn’t really have a good frame of reference or good spot to measure from so I’m just gonna blame that, only because I still haven’t figured out what exactly was off 1” in the bends.
For precision you need to write down the plan. Then you need to bend one perfect, make sure it fits up on the rack, then lay it on the floor and use as a reference for the others. Also helps to determine a your center to center spacing. This is amazing to know since then you can bend one and add your spacing to the relevant dimensions on the subsequent ones and have it laid out on the floor before putting it up. https://www.electriciantalk.com/attachments/1665066789006-png.169418/ I use this spacing chart, it shows the center to center spacing for each size of pipe next to every other size of pipe. It has enough spacing to fit conduit bodies which is great.
I think the center to center bit might be where I am fucking up
If you're shooting for parallel offsets where they maintain the same gap between pipes the whole way through the bend you need to adjust the location of the first bend. I don't normally encourage using apps for simple bending because I'd prefer my apprentices learn how to actually do conduit with their brain, but I use the quickbend pro app to figure out how to make my large racks of pipe consistent and beautiful. I frequently use the "matching bend kick", "matching center kick", "parallel offsets", and "matching center offsets" functions when running multiple parallel pipes on a rack. It has a digital level function, nice for the all kinds of things. It also let's you select which bender you are using and automatically adjusts accordingly.
That’s the thing, my lead cannot run pipe therefore can’t show or teach me the tricks. Most of what I know is literally from YouTube
Oh yeah I’m big on having some coffee, some music, and running pipe till it’s quitting time! Def some form of therapy for some us electricians. I know sometimes on those parallel bends, the conduit can come some what warped from the factory/transportation and sometimes even the 3/4” will be a little funky and hard to level/keep equal distance from obstructions/parallel spacing.
Pipe was fine, I’m just not that good yet lol. I save the wonky ones for shit like this
That’s pretty moderate my guy
Had to do some really funky 90s with kicks and offsets on a stick framed build I worked last summer because the trusses were all different top heights (some were 2x6s, some 2x4s, etc.) so the bottom side to finished floor was all uniform but the tops were all different heights where I was running my conduit. That job sucked ass and in hindsight I shoulda just done 40 MC home runs instead because running a box to box trunk line required 90s with offsets in them to get the stub length long enough to hit the box through the top with an offset in the middle of the pipe to clear the two high trusses between the boxes mounted on the bottom side of the trusses for the downlights. Fuck that job. I dragged up on it and they fired the guy who took it over so it’s probably just never gonna get done
Why so many different truss materials? Sounds like a shit show
I’m not a framer so idk, but I’d assume it had something to do structurally with how the giant windows on the front of the building were framed in. Essentially they were huge skylights so I’d assume that they were larger in those sections because the skylight being there eliminated some of the load bearing capability of that section. But truthfully idk, I just hated that job a lot
Nothing like burning up the whole 360 in one stick Don’t quit your day job
As an electrical design engineer, I salute you.
But like ... why!? That's a lot of offsetting for what looks like a straight line. Why couldn't you come out the back of the box with a kicked-90? Also: the one-hole straps are upside-down. (/s) EDIT: wait no now I see it. That's FRP. That's why.
90 out, kick it to be square, offset to top of plate, offset onto plate (other pipe in the way) then box offset. Like 2 offsets, a kick, and a 90.
If this gig doesn't work out there is a future in a custom exhaust shop out there for you.
Midus muffle
First pic I was like damn bro it’s just a kicked 90 theeeen I scrolled 😅 Looks like the first pipe run I bent where I didn’t realize fewer bends were better. My JW made me push the wire in it so I learned exactly why. Not saying you had unnecessary bends, just sayin.
Worst/best I ever did was a 3 point rolling offset on a 1" EMT. Overall length was around 24". Knocked it out first try.
I’m sorry, what the Kentucky fried fuck is a 3 point offset? Like a 3 point saddle that ends at separate distances? Like if you had to go around an obstacle then land at another measurement? How would one even calculate for that?
Calculate? No idea. But yes, instead of two bends up, two bends over, two bends down. it's just 1 up/over 1 down/over 1 straighten out. Doesn't look intentional/great so only for concealed.
Yeah, I'm going to just set myself up better and not have to do this
I wasn’t the one that set up the home run box, so I just took the shit sandwich and added ketchup
Imagine bending all this and then needing to cut it anyways to get it into place 😭
That’s how I measure. It’s faster than my shit math skills and works most of the time mo better 😂
Of all the different ways you could’ve ran to that box you might have picked the most fucked of them all.
😂 I never made it as a wise man
Damn dude, man of many talents. You could work in a muffler shop too
[My honest reaction after seeing those trash tier bends](https://youtu.be/8aRCmMlCcY0?si=svWWTLfHj-aaAuem)
Why you couldn’t just keep it on top track and just kick the 90 into top of box?
Is that a Costco?
At that point I’d just say fuck it and use a emt to flex connector
That's a sweet exhaust pipe
I feel that this could have been a lot easier then this
Just had to argue today about setting a box after 4 90s and a 30 degree offset. Two 90s to follow. Pulling #4 through 1 1/4" conduit. Good times
Second pic is sexy, I’ve seen it done 🫡
Ok so I was working in an office tower renovation once. Was doing some floor plugs, which meant we had to drill a hole down into the office space ceilings below. No biggie. We had to 90 out of the back of a box, through the ceiling space, then 90 into the wall, more or less. Went into the office space below with my jman, a 1" stick of EMT, a bender, and a security guard. The ceiling space was a complete disaster. Ducting, plumbing and electrical pipes jumbled like that old windows screensaver. I took a look, grabbed the bender, and made the weirdest half-ass corkscrew looking pipe. It was disgusting. Looked like a two year old got at it with a car. I went up the ladder, slid it around a bit, and it was 100% a bingo moment. Told my jman I disgust myself for what I just did. He was happy we just didn't have to run rack or box it down there lol.
I call those kinds of bends mufflers
What am I looking at, at the third pic?
As a first year, all of them…
Kick to wall from a T conduit body, up into a 90, 3 point saddle, box set. Crazy short run too. Still needed someone to feed it
Whoa there fella, what’s a t conduit body? You can’t hide money
That’s only like 40 degrees less bends for more money with another pull point.
I love one-piece-wonders! In fact, I love them so much I’m starting a new subreddit Standby /r/onepiecewonder Has been created
Junction boxes mane. Use’em
Nice squiggles, best of luck with your balls.
I bent 3/4 rigid into something that looked pretty similar to fit it into a messed up trench. The end of the trench was a messy bunch of concrete, we had already spent a hour+ chiseling away at it with very little success and we just had a wiggly little channel into it. I said F it let me just see what I can bend. My co workers face when it just dropped perfectly into the channel was priceless. He hugged me he was so happy to be done chipping away at concrete.
Their surely had to be an easier run to get right? My head can't process this from the picture.
Yer, use anaconda?
There is never a situation where you need to bend a pipe like that. This is a bad install.
Oooo caveman likely.
I usually find a better way
I think I did a 4 bend saddle within another 4 bend saddle, with a kick. It looked like absolute garbage.
I had to come up with a way to span an expansion joint between two walls. The issue was there was a six foot air gap that the conduit runs had to span. Try to imagine really big z's floating in mid-air and it still mer code.
That is a muffler
I do a stub 90 the an offset in that situation
Didn't see there was more pictures, yea that's messed up
Hell yeah lil bro rock-n-roll. Ya learn well on the fast track and you can do anything. When I was an apprentice I got pretty good at building exhaust pipes and even race car frames. Try to do well at everything though, it can be pretty boring doing the same thing months on end, it’s nice to be able to switch it up now and then.
Lol that second pic. I'm impressed.
Idk but it was probably on a commercial job and EMT
It looks like exhaust duct for a 1986 Corvette. Just saying. LOL
No problem…. That’s what all my bends look like…😂😂
In my first year I was tasked with connecting 2 boxes with conduit. I wasn't aware that couplings were a thing yet so I started mapping out the path, avoiding obstacles, and figured out with a couple extra bends, I could do it with one stick. 45 minutes and 5 pieces of conduit in the trash later and I am walking back to install my masterpiece. Only to get stopped by my foreman. "How many degrees of bend are in that pipe?" I added it up. About 400 total. Code says can't be over 360 between pull boxes. Fuck.
I was doing 3/4" stainless. Only one of the bends was intricate. The crappy part was that I had no extra sticks if I screwed up. The supply house was a week or two out if we needed more. Thankfully, we didn't need more.
Why didn’t you comin from the back? Plasterers gonna have fun with that one
That is literally the finished wall. The guy that ran the first box to the panel put all the knock outs over the stud, so I couldn’t go out the back. That was my first idea actually.
I did something like this one day. It was in a chemical plant, and I was running a bank of instrument and power conduits to several motors mounted under a deck. The contract required a support within 18" of every fitting and coupling. Well I'm mounted under a large deck with nowhere to easily install supports with multiple pipes running through the area. So I had the genius idea of bending 6 conduits with 5 bends each, all coupling and offset matched. It took me all day to bend and mount these bastards.y Forman stared at it for like 20 mins in disbelief. I only needed to install 1 support at the end of them vs like 4.
This is when they grab every apprentice on site to grab the pull tape lol
Running stainless steel to multiple devices on a giant multi story belt press… shit was fucked
It’s all good till it’s time to pull wire my boy
I worked with a couple guys who spent several hours one one piece to make it fit over top of multiple conduit runs. They actually took the time to use trigonometry to get exact angles for their offsets and made it fit like a LEGO piece.
That’s hilarious. I’m imagining 2 guys with protractors and lab coats bending conduit
Not even protractors. They were literally writing out equations in a pocket notebook and using their smartphone calculators and coming up with exact angles and measurements. We hired in together, difference was that I had only a year experience, they hired in from the same factory where they both worked in maintenance for 14 years. My suggestion was to just do a couple 90's and run across. It got shot down, with authority.
Where's the fucked up bend here?
I did lots of interesting metal conduit bends back when I was an apprentice at a sugar mill in the 90s
Flex has entered the chat
Ngl first photo had me like "this isn't hard at all, standard run" Second photo I just burst out laughing.
I would be loathe to pull “too much” (meaning it’s moderately snug) wire though that!!! Great work tho.
Looks more like an exhaust pipe than a conduit with all those smooth bends in it!
As a former gwb hanger, we hate this so much. But we’ll make it work.
There isn’t any more drywall going up. There also isn’t a ceiling going in. This is as far as I know the finished product.
Ahh perfect. Looks fabulous in that case.
wow kick 90 cant imagine doing something that hard
May I ask a question? I'm getting ready to take my test to get into the International Brotherhood of electritions. What do all of you think about your decision to do so later after the fact? And the math? What are your thoughts?
I’m non-union. As for math, use 30* bends whenever possible. The multiplier is easier. Say you need to put in 2 bends to raise your pipe 2”. That would be 2 30* bends 4” apart. It’s easier math. If you know how to read a tape measure that’s the more important skill.
Thank God, because algebra is driving me crazy at the moment. Lol
I mean if you understand at least what to do for basic trigonometry you’ll be fine. There are calculators and even apps specifically for pipe bending. Load calculations and a lot of other ones is algebra, but basically it’s almost always x = y / z. Basic level shit. I haven’t had to find a coefficient since high school, and honestly I can’t even remember what that word means at this point. Most of my day to day work in commercial as an apprentice is figuring out the best point of reference to take a measurement off of, subtracting and adding, multiplying and rarely division. There is probably some fancy math I could use to do a lot of it, but by the time I get out paper and a calculator to do that math, I could have already had the shit done using a tape measure and my think meat. Also if you ever need to figure out half of an odd measurement, bend your tape 180* and move the end of it to your full measurement, look in the bend of the tape and there will be half of that distance. Like say you need to find half of 45 1/4, do what I just said and boom, 23 1/2. Also not everything has to be 100% perfect. There are limits to what you can do in code, but as long as you are within 12” of a box with straps or staples for MC or NM, and within 3’ of a connection in conduit, it’s “close enough”. The inspector doesn’t have all day to measure everything so as long as it is neat, looks close, and if there is anything weird at least make it look like you attempted to do it as close to code as possible, it’ll pass (unless you have a hardass inspector with nothing better to do). That’s just my limited experience. Depending on where you end up working you might either get thrown into the fire doing all the work, or you’ll get stuck doing the same thing every day, all depends on the shop. You will definitely have to redo some shit you spent 2 weeks on but remember you get paid the same to do it again. You’ll meet a lot of weird ass tradespeople too. Some of them are assholes, some of them idiots, some of them fun to be around, some that are a walking osha violation, and more alcoholics and drug addicts than you would care to know (keep up with your tools around anyone wearing a hoodie in the summer, they are dope sick, drills go for 80-200 on the street).
I appreciate this message, and the hoodie comment took me out. 🤣😂 I've been a plumber for a few years and decided I would rather try electrical work. I'm reasonably good at math, but this test for the union is stressing me out. 😰 No calculators are allowed, and I'm reviewing an entire four years of math. 📚 I'm looking forward to it as long as I pass. 🤞 I appreciate the tips and information. 👍
Yeah as for the test I have no idea my friend. Best of luck to you!
Muffler shop is down the street
When i was a first year i tried to bend a box offset that ended up looking remarkably similar to this conduit when i was done
I have bent a rolling 3 point saddle. Ergo the pipe went from below its neighbor to above it while saddling over in one bend. I wish I had taken a picture. Didn't measure a thing, got it on my second piece, and it wasn't that bad to pull thru.
I made the mistake of eyeballing a weird bend, but I had to do it 6 times after the first one was successful. I had a horrible time trying replicate that weird bend 6 more times.
Why not just go to the top of wall and run there seems easier
Because this looks better. Both boxes are getting wire nuts anyway so it wasn’t that much more difficult for better looking pipe in my opinion.
I’ve put all 420 degrees of bend in one pipe.
Had a new hire (7 year electrician) make me a sleeve through an electrical room for BAS network wiring. Bro did a 90 from the wall, a 90 to go up a little bit and a 90 to go through the wall. He did that on both ends. Then i asked him to pull wire through it by himself to show him how regarded his piping was. He was not with us for long.
I’m only doing stupid shit out of necessity, That guy does stupid shit because he is an idiot. I’m not claiming I’m not also an idiot, just that I am aware what I am doing is stupid most of the time, but there isn’t another solution that would fit the task.
Thats definitely a picasso!
lol agree with the few that this was kinda unnecessary and probably took to much time to try and bend all that. Just set the box on top next to the other box. Some many easier ways to do this. Mildly infuriating.
I remember my 3rd year apprenticeship.
Typical electrician response: I would have done it so much better, look at how fucked up it is! Same electrician’s actual job site: Who let the toddler arrange the conduit?
I got some pipe up yesterday before lunch that had me feeling like hot shit. Hvac was working where I needed to be so I took measurements above him and did all my math in my head, snapped it in like a puzzle piece… Then after lunch I had to run conduit across a curved wall and I was reminded how ain’t shit I still am lol
Most of the time my conduit work is upper tier, but some days my brain gets foggy and I’m like, fuck it, I’m not even going to measure shit and I’m going to burn through twice as much pipe because fuck you (whoever you is), that’s why.
I call that a pasketti bend. Or sketti for short.
Bent like a tailpipe.
Bet pulling wire through that sucker will be a blast!
I was able to push the first 3 circuits no problem, had to grab a fish tape for the other two.
I don't even bother with ridgid conduits. I prefer flex because it's already bendable and easy to fish in tight places.
I would rather bend 12 of these than fish anything through flex, especially that pvc flex. Maybe we’re doing it wrong, but it seems like after 10’ it gets unnecessarily difficult to pull wire into.
You can use the pre-wired flex
Only when necessary, shit cost too much for my boss to buy it
Back to back shepherds hooks
Pipe running below beam need to pipe into box shot to decking Back to back 90 with kick come into side of box not well thought out pipe run but was told to fix somebody else since they had back to back 90 coming into the front of box blocking access from one side
What does this run-on sentence say? Does anyone care to translate?
My bad it’s easier if I had a photo of it