bending plastic conduit - ?

[LukeScotty]

first thing comes to your head is, "use a bleeding bending spring"

Now, i was wondering as I havnt tried it yet,but has any one tried bending plastic conduit with a bending spring, on an actual bender tool thingi me bobs..... because I tried doing a double set in a length and it was quiet hard, to say i don't use it often. anyways, if anyone has any decent techniques, id love for you to share them, or whether you've tried a bending spring on a bender?

 

[UNG]

No offence to anyone, but unless you have some crappy quality tube, there is no need to rub or warm the conduit (dunno about light gauge, does anyone actually use this?).

It would be interesting to know what tube you are using from your comment. I have used tube from most manufacturers and unless it is in a warm environment it all needs warming to bend it without problems

 

[Sintra]

Always needs warming. Never seen any make of tube that would bend properly cold.

 

[bugsy]

Ive never bent pvc conduit without getting a bit of heat into it regardless of quality

 

[Phil]

first time i bent it turned into a right mess. think i even managed to split the sides of it, my mates sides were splitting too when he seen it

 

[Davey101]

Not sure on the make of tube to be honest, most of it either comes from Newey's, or Edmunsons.
Have just been working on a hospital with several thousand metres of tube in it (around 40 sparks), cant comment on all the sparks on site, but none of my mates warmed it up, and we had no problems until we had a bad batch/different make, which was constantly cracking, or creasing. I've got 3 bundles on my site now, none of us warm it up, and I had frost on my van this morning.

Not saying that you will never have to warm it, just that I haven't seen anyone do it since my apprenticeship.
Perhaps its the difference between light and heavy gauge?

 

[Matt!8]

I was doing a lot of work with 20mm conduit and just a bending spring then bending it by hand and it worked well. However I bought 25mm conduit and a 25mm spring and I can not get it to bend without kinking, the spring seems to be too loose but I have bought springs for both heavy and light wall conduit. Does anyone know what I’m doing wrong to get the conduit bent without wrinkles or kinks?

 

[littlespark]

I was doing a lot of work with 20mm conduit and just a bending spring then bending it by hand and it worked well. However I bought 25mm conduit and a 25mm spring and I can not get it to bend without kinking, the spring seems to be too loose but I have bought springs for both heavy and light wall conduit. Does anyone know what I’m doing wrong to get the conduit bent without wrinkles or kinks?

It’s maybe mentioned already in this 10 plus year old thread that different conduit manufacturers have slightly different interneal diameters, so you need to get the spring for the same stuff.

Not just light or heavy duty… Marshall Tufflex will be different to EGA for example

I was always taught to rub vigorously beforehand.

 

[Julie.]

...
I was always taught to rub vigorously beforehand.

I try to use some external heat, space heater, hot air gun etc.

The rubbing thing is not a movement I am particularly familiar with.

 

[Matt!8]

It’s maybe mentioned already in this 10 plus year old thread that different conduit manufacturers have slightly different interneal diameters, so you need to get the spring for the same stuff.

Not just light or heavy duty… Marshall Tufflex will be different to EGA for example

I was always taught to rub vigorously beforehand.

Thank you