A Comprehensive Guide On How To Bend Conduit For Electricians

Bending conduit is an integral part of an electrician's work, and this set of articles is designed to help electricians, whether a beginning apprentice or an experienced journeyman, to learn how to bend conduit.

The article you are reading is intended primarily as an "index" to the other pages that actually comprise the instructions and methods of a conduit bending guide. Links are provided further down to each type of bend, one to a discussion of the math behind bending emt, and a couple of other links to tools that might interest the professional electrician. By clicking on a particular link you will be taken to the page indicated for that conduit bend - please use your "back" button to return back to this index page.

This guide is a work in progress; while offsets and saddles are discussed on the page written for the beginning apprentice future pages are intended for a more in-depth look at these bends. If you don't find what you are looking for, please leave a note and I will try to accommodate you with future pages.

One of the biggest problems I see with electricians bending conduit is that they forget, or ignore, the constraints placed on the number of degrees permissable without a junction box. Many, many electricians will bend nothing but 90's and 30º angles, resulting in either a very difficult wire pull or unnecessary use of junction boxes. Remember, each junction box requires at the minimum a box, a cover plate, two conduit connectors and a few screws. There is likely to be wire splices used in the box, meaning more time, some wire nuts and perhaps a problem down the road troubleshooting bad makeup.

Always consider the minimum number of degrees necessary to accomplish what needs to be done. If an offset can be made with 10º bends (in a reasonable manner) instead of the typical 30º bends use the smaller bend. Going from a 30º to 10º offset will save 40º each time. Two such offsets in a conduit run (not uncommon) saves nearly a 90º bend and perhaps a junction box. If you are pulling the wire, you will appreciate the savings, and so will anyone else.

Anyone learning how to bend conduit will need to learn to think in three dimensions. Conduit runs do not always travel in a straight line; they can go up or down, right or left or anything in between. Learning to conceptualize the results of possible bends is not always easy, but with practice and time it will become almost second nature. Work on it - it will help minimize the degrees of bend needed.

A final note; please consider purchasing your own hand benders. Each bender is slightly different, with a little different feel and used just a little differently. While any bender can be used, once the skill is learned, you will do better with your own bender. In addition, your own bender can be personalized; the page on bending saddles describes how to permanently mark your own bender for the center of a 22º bend for instance. Benders are a relatively inexpensive part of the electricians tool kit and can well last a lifetime.

A conduit bending-guide-on-how-to-bend-a-saddle-in-emt-conduit

Bending a proper saddle in EMT is often one of the most difficult electricians will face, but there is no need for that to be. Saddles are not difficult; even the dreaded 3 point saddle is easy to make with just a couple of simple tips and some experience.