EMT Bending, Easy-Mode: Learn Offsets first. It will help with the easy 90° in the measuring, and the four point/three point saddles. Beginners Notes List: (Summary at end of list) 1. Don’t Over Complicate bending. 2. Tools: Right sized Bender, tape measure, marking device: pencil (or sharpie, or I like using BLACK DRY ERASE MARKER (just don’t touch the marks until done bending). Also, to remove sharpie, have a used Dry Erase marker, and just scrub the sharpie mark with it, wipe it off with damp towel/rag. 3. Print, memorize, write out, or just use Notes/Photo/Web Page on iPhone of an OFFSET BEND CHART. 4. Practice when you start out, with old cuts of EMT that are being tossed into trash. DON’T EVER FEAR being seen learning something (just do what works for you). 5. Bends and stance. When doing 90° bends, flip bender so head is on flat ground. When doing other bends, try keeping it upright. 6. Learn to line up your EMT by using a template and marking. I made one out of a FOAM TUBE (you can use insulate foam for water pipes, just cut to fit and use the glued side to stick it together to the cut you make to fit it). The FOAM TUBE fits perfectly over an EMT pipe 1/2”. I cut little triangle marks at four points, marking the north, south, east and west side of the pipe. Line up first mark with the scrape line that can be found on EVERY EMT pipe. Use this method if you have a hard time lining up your bends so you don’t dogleg. 7. PRO-LIST: *** DONT re-bend EMT, if you made a mistake, Start new. *** CLEAN off your markings. *** Picture the bend you want/need, and make it perfectly fit. I can’t stress how important this is, instead of just going into bending like it’s your first time and winging it. *** Make your offsets/bends the same unless you can’t. Consistent bends and offsets look so good, no one notices. ONE flaw in bending, and EVERY Electrician can spot it. *** Don’t forget to clip/secure the EMT where and how your codes states (distances from boxes and from other clips). *** No Shortcuts. NEVER short cut. It only holds you back in life, in the long run. Do it right, do it better, do it as if someone’s life depended on it…even bending a stupid EMT pipe. Everything you do, you want to impress on people, that if they were building an army, they would want you on their army. EMT pipe bending: You don’t need to know all the math, in your first year. So let’s just stick with the easy. Summary: You will usually only need; 10° for JBox offset (Multiplier of 6) 30° for Clearance Offsets (Multi of 2) 90° and 45° where needed (45° multi 1.4) Make your marks. First mark where you want your bend to start (2-3” normal start for a JBox offset). Second mark, encircle pipe, using multiplier formula. Head up, unless bending a 90° bend, to read degree line. Bend first mark, first. Slide pipe forward and turn to line up second mark. Make sure no dogleg, and bend. Cut where needed & Ream your ends. Remove your marks. Place pipe in position and attach and clip. Return all your tools and large debris to trash, before starting next project (so you don’t lose tools). Enjoy your success.
Thank you for sharing this!! I studied my multipliers and have been practicing at work whenever I can. Still green but I’m getting used to it especially after re watching and reading.
Just starting off 6 mo apprentice and reviewing everything bend related on Sat morning, some concepts take me many repeats to sink in, I appreciate your way of explaining this thoroughly, thank you!
Great videos Bill 👍 All college classes got cancelled due to covid-19, and your videos have been helping me through the the last days of my semester, since there are no online classes.
Bill, why do you factor the 1/2 shrinkage into the distance between bends, wouldn’t the shrinkage be in the overall length? Keep the video’s coming glad your back.
sparky, you use 3/8 * 6(multiplyer) for normal box offset without shrink, but you use 2*2(multiplyer)+ 1/2 shrink=4.5" for this box offset? as i learned before, we dont add shrink between two marks but add to the length
The offset was 2 inches so its going to be a 4 inch spread, but for every inch of obstruction height it's a 1/4 inch shrink. 2 inches= 1/2 inch so the spread would be 4 1/2"
This made sense but my question is, how did you determine this was a 30deg bend? I’m confused on how you convert the whatever length offset into degrees of bend. Thanks for all the helpful vids!
Can anyone explain to me why sparky added shrink to his in-between measurement? I thought you only add shrink to the measurement from your box/coupling to the point of obstruction for Mark A and then times offset height by the multiplier for Mark B?
Box offsets typically are half an inch, both bends will be pretty close together so 10° simplifies it, but with larger offset measurements you need more bend in both bends and space them further apart plus 30° makes it a lot easier to pull compared to 45°
Shrinkage is useful when you're going from one box to another or one fitting to another. If you're just making a bend in the air to show to a class or something like that it doesn't really matter.
So im in trade school , we just started bending conduit . My professor said an offset is 10° no matter what , so im just curious why you bent to 30° in the first demonstration
Hi David! Perhaps you don't have room to make 10° offsets. In that case you can choose a greater angle for the bends because when you do the offset bend takes up less room. I agree with your professor that most of the time you will use 10° for box offsets.
I need to connect a 1" EMT to a 1" conduit body and a Sigma 1" J Box. It is outdoor and only 4 feet. Do I need to do offset on both ends ? Also is it bend 10 degree?
Hi Bill may I have some stickers too , please, please I'm electrician from Brooklyn NY.... I would make you promotion at my job's Sites.... By the way thank you for your videos they Very clear and helpful
@@SparkyChannel you are very welcome!!!!!! sorry to hear your channel was stolen from you but Im glade and our apprentice class enjoys watching your nideos at break
we'll get back to you on some video ideas. Great to have you back. We can learn a lot from the down time due to the shelter in place order and our job sites shutting down, give us time to practice emt bending
Sparky, make me some sparks! Are the Greenlee Little Kickers for making offsets into receptacles or switch boxes worth the money if a person is doing a lot of them, or is it more of a "novelty"? The Little Kickers are expensive new, but once in a while I come across used ones........
Good question! Sure, if you are going to do production offsets the Little Kicker would be worth it. But the price and weight would be a pain for more occasional use.
This seems awfully inconvenient. I'm kinda curious, we have long since abandoned metal pipes and boxes for PVC boxes and flexible pipes. Is there a specific reason to still use metal?
/facepalm....never heard someone be condescending against EMT, by choosing PVC as a country.... Ever.... That’s like asking why use carton milk when you can use plastic jug milk.... What?
@@SparkyChannel Also PVC will make nasty smoke and fumes during a fire whereas EMT will not add fuel to the fire. It is best to only use PVC underground and on exterior walls, in my opinion.
Hi Jeremy! You may need to go slightly beyond the 10° due to snap-back. That is, the EMT snaps back slightly after bending. Maybe it's your bender and maybe more practice will do the trick.
Its easier to eyeball a box offset then to try and do the math and use the lines on the bender you can always add or take out if your a little off me personally I never trust the lines on the bender I use the level for all my bends
Let's see if I got it Shrinkage for 10° bend is 1/16" per inch The object height is 3/8" (space between wall and box hole) So shrinkage is 1/16" x 3/8"= 0.0234375( which is less than 1/16" which is why he didn't use the number because it was too small to measure with a tape measure) So he used the between bends formula which at 10° is a factor (multiple) of 6. So 6x3/8"= 2.25 or 2-1/4. So if he added them like the 1st example then the distance between bends would be 2.2734375" but since he didn't use the shrinkage value because it was so low and unmeasurable by a standard tape measure or another way to think of it is he rounded down to 2-1/4".
Why are you adding 1/2 inch to the 4 inches in between bends ? Don’t you just multiply 2 x2 to get a 2 inch offset. In your other video you just multiplied 2x4 to get a 4 inch offset without factoring in the shrink amount in between the bends.
EMT Bending, Easy-Mode:
Learn Offsets first. It will help with the easy 90° in the measuring, and the four point/three point saddles.
Beginners Notes List:
(Summary at end of list)
1. Don’t Over Complicate bending.
2. Tools: Right sized Bender, tape measure, marking device: pencil (or sharpie, or I like using BLACK DRY ERASE MARKER (just don’t touch the marks until done bending). Also, to remove sharpie, have a used Dry Erase marker, and just scrub the sharpie mark with it, wipe it off with damp towel/rag.
3. Print, memorize, write out, or just use Notes/Photo/Web Page on iPhone of an OFFSET BEND CHART.
4. Practice when you start out, with old cuts of EMT that are being tossed into trash. DON’T EVER FEAR being seen learning something (just do what works for you).
5. Bends and stance. When doing 90° bends, flip bender so head is on flat ground. When doing other bends, try keeping it upright.
6. Learn to line up your EMT by using a template and marking. I made one out of a FOAM TUBE (you can use insulate foam for water pipes, just cut to fit and use the glued side to stick it together to the cut you make to fit it). The FOAM TUBE fits perfectly over an EMT pipe 1/2”. I cut little triangle marks at four points, marking the north, south, east and west side of the pipe. Line up first mark with the scrape line that can be found on EVERY EMT pipe. Use this method if you have a hard time lining up your bends so you don’t dogleg.
7. PRO-LIST:
*** DONT re-bend EMT, if you made a mistake, Start new.
*** CLEAN off your markings.
*** Picture the bend you want/need, and make it perfectly fit. I can’t stress how important this is, instead of just going into bending like it’s your first time and winging it.
*** Make your offsets/bends the same unless you can’t. Consistent bends and offsets look so good, no one notices. ONE flaw in bending, and EVERY Electrician can spot it.
*** Don’t forget to clip/secure the EMT where and how your codes states (distances from boxes and from other clips).
*** No Shortcuts. NEVER short cut. It only holds you back in life, in the long run. Do it right, do it better, do it as if someone’s life depended on it…even bending a stupid EMT pipe. Everything you do, you want to impress on people, that if they were building an army, they would want you on their army.
EMT pipe bending: You don’t need to know all the math, in your first year. So let’s just stick with the easy.
Summary:
You will usually only need;
10° for JBox offset (Multiplier of 6)
30° for Clearance Offsets (Multi of 2)
90° and 45° where needed (45° multi 1.4)
Make your marks. First mark where you want your bend to start (2-3” normal start for a JBox offset). Second mark, encircle pipe, using multiplier formula. Head up, unless bending a 90° bend, to read degree line. Bend first mark, first. Slide pipe forward and turn to line up second mark. Make sure no dogleg, and bend.
Cut where needed & Ream your ends.
Remove your marks. Place pipe in position and attach and clip. Return all your tools and large debris to trash, before starting next project (so you don’t lose tools).
Enjoy your success.
Thank you for sharing this!! I studied my multipliers and have been practicing at work whenever I can. Still green but I’m getting used to it especially after re watching and reading.
Thank you brother. I’m a green apprentice and this helped a lot. 🫱🏽🫲🏾
Thanks, great tips!
Just starting off 6 mo apprentice and reviewing everything bend related on Sat morning, some concepts take me many repeats to sink in, I appreciate your way of explaining this thoroughly, thank you!
Great explanation Sparky. Thanks for getting my favorite reference source built back up.
It's coming back nicely isn't it? Have a great weekend Gary!
@@SparkyChannel Yes it is coming back !
i like your videos i watching form Thailand
Cheers from San Diego, California. Thanks!
@@SparkyChannel teach bend parallel offset please
Are you electrician in Thailand?
@@jeremyrodriguez5923 yes i am
Greetings from America!
Bill, learning conduit bending and your channel is the Best! Thanks.
Thanks so much! 👍
Great videos Bill 👍
All college classes got cancelled due to covid-19, and your videos have been helping me through the the last days of my semester, since there are no online classes.
Right on, that's great! I'll try to keep them coming. Are you interested in auto electric as well?
Always enjoy watching you sir. Learn alot
Thanks for all instruction Mr. Bill
Hi Carlos! No, problem, thanks!
Thanks for your videos, they have been very helpful to me, I was never good at bending pipe until I started watching your your chanel.
Thanks again!
That's great. Good job!
Good morning Bill. Thanks for the post
Good morning Michael! No problem, thanks!
That's exactly what I needed. Thank you. I hate guessing ,bending in the wrong direction and couplings .
LOL! I hear that!
The Best thing yo happen in 2020 was you sir. Great content
Thanks so much!
Bill the master teacher! :)
Thanks Michael!
Grande Sparky.......👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏......Gracias from Santiago of Chile..........😷.....☝️.....👷
¡Gracias de San Diego!
Love you sparky channel! Gold as usual!
Thanks!
Would you do a video of a rolling offset? Thank you again for such great content!
Great demonstration video Sparky.
Thanks Ramiro! 👍
Bill, why do you factor the 1/2 shrinkage into the distance between bends, wouldn’t the shrinkage be in the overall length? Keep the video’s coming glad your back.
It's because it's the bend that causes the shrinkage, not the whole conduit.
Great videos keep them coming
sparky, you use 3/8 * 6(multiplyer) for normal box offset without shrink, but you use 2*2(multiplyer)+ 1/2 shrink=4.5" for this box offset? as i learned before, we dont add shrink between two marks but add to the length
Hola como Esta señor sparky excelente videos muy bien explicado yo lo sigo en sus videos siempre saludos
¡Gracias!
Sir your working finessing good . 👍
Thanks 👍
In my country, a "box" offset is a bend going into a box laying on it's back. You just showed a standard 30 degree offset bend. Thanks for that.
No problem, thanks!
Great Job Bill 😉👍🏽⚡️💡
Thank you! Cheers!
Hey Bill, on the first box offset bend, how did you get 4 1/2 “ on the second mark? -Thanks for the video !
The offset was 2 inches so its going to be a 4 inch spread, but for every inch of obstruction height it's a 1/4 inch shrink. 2 inches= 1/2 inch so the spread would be 4 1/2"
@@michaelperez9290 Beautiful explanation Michael!
Michael Perez Thank you very Michael appreciate that, keep those videos coming Bill! Love your channel
No problem man. Have good a one.
This made sense but my question is, how did you determine this was a 30deg bend? I’m confused on how you convert the whatever length offset into degrees of bend. Thanks for all the helpful vids!
Nice info thank you sparky !!
No problem 👍 Thanks Robert!
Have not seen any videos from you sir lately , hope all is well sir , god bless
Can anyone explain to me why sparky added shrink to his in-between measurement? I thought you only add shrink to the measurement from your box/coupling to the point of obstruction for Mark A and then times offset height by the multiplier for Mark B?
are these mesurement the same for all size of conduit ???
why is he choosing 10* on the outlet box offset but 30* on the light box? is there a rule to choosing or just what he felt like?
I think because 10’ bends are better for offsets that are an inch or smaller.
i just did the math for making 30 degree bends for 3/8 height. cant make 2- 30 degree bends within 3/4 of an inch.
Box offsets typically are half an inch, both bends will be pretty close together so 10° simplifies it, but with larger offset measurements you need more bend in both bends and space them further apart plus 30° makes it a lot easier to pull compared to 45°
Ive see other bending videos where they don't talk about shrinkage. What happens if you don't add that into it?
Shrinkage is useful when you're going from one box to another or one fitting to another. If you're just making a bend in the air to show to a class or something like that it doesn't really matter.
So im in trade school , we just started bending conduit . My professor said an offset is 10° no matter what , so im just curious why you bent to 30° in the first demonstration
Hi David! Perhaps you don't have room to make 10° offsets. In that case you can choose a greater angle for the bends because when you do the offset bend takes up less room. I agree with your professor that most of the time you will use 10° for box offsets.
@@SparkyChannel oh wow thanks so much for taking the time to respond and explaining to me. Keep up the great work !
@@davidmunoz8326 No problem.
@@SparkyChannel its wasnt a standard offset, look how the EMT is against the stud needs greater than 10 degree than normally
I need to connect a 1" EMT to a 1" conduit body and a Sigma 1" J Box. It is outdoor and only 4 feet. Do I need to do offset on both ends ? Also is it bend 10 degree?
See my video: EMT Conduit Nipple Fill and Strap Questions NEC Chapter 9 Table 1: ua-cam.com/video/E5iGdmXntKw/v-deo.html
Yes, 10° works well.
Very useful ☺️👍
Thank you 🙂
Balboa botanical garden love it 619!!!
619!!!
Thank you sparky
Bill. Do you have any sparky channel shirts or stickers for hard hat
That's a great idea! I really like the sticker idea because I need some for my hard hat!
@@SparkyChannel I'd buy some
@@evrlastngcherry7727 Write to me (Bill) at wpm44@yahoo.com with name address and zip and I'll mail you a dozen Sparky Channel stickers.
Brent, write to me (Bill) at wpm44@yahoo.com with name address and zip and I'll mail you a dozen Sparky Channel stickers.
Hi Bill may I have some stickers too , please, please I'm electrician from Brooklyn NY....
I would make you promotion at my job's Sites....
By the way thank you for your videos they Very clear and helpful
What size emt is that your using? and what is the most common size use?
I'm using 1/2" EMT in the video. All the sizes are used a lot. It depends how large and how many wires you need to put in the EMT.
@@SparkyChannel thank you Sir. Great content by the way. May God bless you and your family
good stuff!!!
Thanks Brent!
@@SparkyChannel you are very welcome!!!!!!
sorry to hear your channel was stolen from you but Im glade and our apprentice class enjoys watching your nideos at break
@@brent52 Fantastic! Would you guys like me to make any particular EMT bending video?
we'll get back to you on some video ideas. Great to have you back. We can learn a lot from the down time due to the shelter in place order and our job sites shutting down, give us time to practice emt bending
@@brent52 Good attitude! Yes, let me know.
Sparky, make me some sparks! Are the Greenlee Little Kickers for making offsets into receptacles or switch boxes worth the money if a person is doing a lot of them, or is it more of a "novelty"? The Little Kickers are expensive new, but once in a while I come across used ones........
Good question! Sure, if you are going to do production offsets the Little Kicker would be worth it. But the price and weight would be a pain for more occasional use.
I’ve been using Klein tools tape measure for a long time and never notice the bending rules in the back😨
Now you know! :)
@@SparkyChannel all thanks to you master 🙏
Respect sir, do you some pdf of bending guidelines
This seems awfully inconvenient. I'm kinda curious, we have long since abandoned metal pipes and boxes for PVC boxes and flexible pipes. Is there a specific reason to still use metal?
Yes, it provides excellent protection from mechanical damage.
Try reading NFPA publication 70.
/facepalm....never heard someone be condescending against EMT, by choosing PVC as a country....
Ever....
That’s like asking why use carton milk when you can use plastic jug milk....
What?
@@SparkyChannel Also PVC will make nasty smoke and fumes during a fire whereas EMT will not add fuel to the fire. It is best to only use PVC underground and on exterior walls, in my opinion.
In Chicago it's all metal boxes, EMT and Flex. Plastic boxes and Romex are not allowed except for temporary wiring.
For some reason my box offsets never come out right when using the math formula.. 3/8 x 6 = 2 1/4 at 10 degrees. Can someone explain?
Hi Jeremy! You may need to go slightly beyond the 10° due to snap-back. That is, the EMT snaps back slightly after bending. Maybe it's your bender and maybe more practice will do the trick.
Sparky Channel thank you. I really appreciate all the videos you post. You make it a lot easily being an apprentice commercial electrician
@@jeremyragsdale8530 Sounds good, just keep at it. :)
Its easier to eyeball a box offset then to try and do the math and use the lines on the bender you can always add or take out if your a little off me personally I never trust the lines on the bender I use the level for all my bends
I mean a actual box set the little ones off the wall to the hole I know there’s no formula for that magic
the 10 degree offset is a box offset, just not based off magic or vibes lol
I'm pretty sure Sparky is secretly Thor since he has such an easy time bending this EMT. :D
LOL!
Good one 😀
You did over bend that 10 degree. Great video tho
Thanks!
Iam sorry sparky i dont understand the part 3/8 ×6= 2 1/4 how do i make the desicion from 1/16 to 3/8 on another job
Let's see if I got it
Shrinkage for 10° bend is 1/16" per inch
The object height is 3/8" (space between wall and box hole)
So shrinkage is 1/16" x 3/8"= 0.0234375( which is less than 1/16" which is why he didn't use the number because it was too small to measure with a tape measure)
So he used the between bends formula which at 10° is a factor (multiple) of 6.
So 6x3/8"= 2.25 or 2-1/4.
So if he added them like the 1st example then the distance between bends would be 2.2734375" but since he didn't use the shrinkage value because it was so low and unmeasurable by a standard tape measure or another way to think of it is he rounded down to 2-1/4".
Why are you adding 1/2 inch to the 4 inches in between bends ? Don’t you just multiply 2 x2 to get a 2 inch offset. In your other video you just multiplied 2x4 to get a 4 inch offset without factoring in the shrink amount in between the bends.
2x4 meaning you measured 8 inches between the bends to get a 4inch offset.
This title should have been “watch me bend and ream pipe! It’s not gay!”