Got a couple of young ones I'm working with.
Both raised up on farm or in farm county.
Been giving them instructions on how to bend conduit and make life easier on themselves at work.
All 8 did was give instructions and formulas for bending.
One guy is very proud of his work.
So proud he took pictures and sent them to people.
Their reply was you've got Lee with you don't you.
Yes but they bent the conduit and put it up.
I'm very proud of these guys.
Both went to school with each other and both about 24 years old.
Their pride is already there I didn't have to beat it into them.
Both are very smart.

Okay, question, can I bend 1/2" EMT in a 3/4" bender. I need to buy the material, so nothing to test with. I have a 3/4" bender head, $5 from long ago yard sale. I think I have threaded black pipe for it for a handle. I just don't know if it can be bent as is or does it need to be sleeved, or absolutely need a 1/2" bender head?

I have one of these: https://www.grainger.com/product/IDEAL- ... EMT-10F489

JRinPA wrote: ↑Sat Jun 15, 2024 10:50 pm Okay, question, can I bend 1/2" EMT in a 3/4" bender. I need to buy the material, so nothing to test with. I have a 3/4" bender head, $5 from long ago yard sale. I think I have threaded black pipe for it for a handle. I just don't know if it can be bent as is or does it need to be sleeved, or absolutely need a 1/2" bender head?

I have one of these: https://www.grainger.com/product/IDEAL- ... EMT-10F489

Good lord they've went of in price.
No you need a 1/2 EMT bender.
The walls will collapse in a 3/4 mandrel and the end will become oval from the hook in the end.
They're like 40 bucks at home Depot handle and all.
I bet harbor freight even has them.
Granger has always been as high as a cat's back.

A 3/4 EMT bender will bend 1/2 rigid conduit but not EMT.
The same work's it's way up the sizes.

There's lots of information on line about how to bend conduit.
You can use it for all manner of things ounce you figure out what the formulas are and what the markings are for on the bender.
The slot cut across the mandrel is the center of the bend.
The Star is confusing and hard to explain.
It has to do with bending 90° bends if you need to flip the bender around to bend.
A normal 90° bend if you want the end to tick up a certain distance like say 20 inches you measure from the end 20 inches and subtract 6 inches on a EMT bender and make another mark.
Put the mark on the arrow and bend.
The end of the bent conduit will be 20 inches.
There's all sorts of tips and tricks to bending conduit.
What baffles the guys is how I can bend a small offset without measuring anything and it coming out right the first time.
The 30 degree bend is the most popular because of the easy math.
And the location of the bender handle at 30 degrees.
It's straight up and down.
And the math is simple.
For a 3 inch offset you make a mark then multiply 3 by 2 and make the other mark at 6 inches from the last mark.
Make your 30 degree bend and rotate the conduit 180 degrees and make another 30 degree bend.
If you do everything right your offset will be 3 inches from the ground or wall or whatever.
That's the 30.60.90 triangle everyone was taught in school but didn't think they would ever use again.
Some guys can do it and others can't or don't want to.
Another problem is the ability to have abstract thought.
If you don't have it you can't visualize the end result and work out problems before you ever do it.
It's seriously becoming a lost art in the trades.
I must say the young coworker was raised on a farm he is 24 years old takes proud in his work and himself.
He has also built a beautiful Cummins diesel engine for his Dodge truck.
Other attributes are he is very moral in upbringing and so on.

So can't use like piece of garden hose or something to shim the 1/2" emt, that stinks.

I have not used a bender in a long while, last time was 1" for a boat blind that ended up being a butternut X trellis.

I looked at the price of 1/2" EMT, I would need 5, be $35 just for that. A 1/2" bender is $40

I remember doing a redneck rental (Trademarked JR, that is what I call buying /using /returning) for the 1" bender to make that boat blind. Up to $100 bucks now, think that was $80 back then, so that didn't go up as much. Morally, I felt just fine, I didn't even mar it, used newspaper in each bend. 1" sticks were $6 something back then, now 1/2" are that price.

You can try but it's going to throw your math off