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?

 

[Shakey]

Luke, i use a bending spring, but you got to warm up the conduit first to stop it creasing at the bend.

In a basic way, i just rub it between my hands (the conduit i mean!!!) where i am going to bend it, then bend it bit by bit, kepping warming it as you go.

you will need to bend it past the 90 degrees, then let it spring back to a perfect 90. Theres defintely an art to it.

I use whatever is around me. Done a job the other day and they had these heaters mounted on top of gas bottles - stuck the conduit in front of it for 30 seconds (turning it to heat up all the way around)

even stuck it on top of radiators before now.

use whatever you got, but your hands will work (just get a bit sore after a while)

 

[rumrunner]

Hi
like shakey says a bit of heat helps ,a double set is "not easy"i think i would end up cutting it in half and putting a coupling in ,biggest problem is getting the spring back out ,i presume you have tied it on a bit of cable ,if you want to bend it in a hilmor ,fill the pipe with sand ,never tried it but it works with thin aluminium pipe. good luck

 

[danzor]

bend it around your knee!

 

[wayne]

experience and the knee come to mind

also measure your bends,assuming we're talking about a saddle bend measure from the first bend to the second that distance wants to be same as third to fourth sounds easy but it never is

 

[rumrunner]

yeah i use the knee method ,but what luke was asking was if you can use a bender in conjunction with a spring ,i cant see why not ,but as i say ,its getting the spring out again!
atvbitwww

 

[wayne]

feel free to try a bender and be laughed at sorry!!
even when you bend steel conduit you can end up "tweaking" it to get it right trust me the plastic will end over the knee!

 

[LukeScotty]

lol, still doing it around the knee, not had chance to put it in the bender

 

[Cirrus]

Keep using your knee and keep practising. You'll get the hang of it

 

[Bane]

Around your neck

 

[Shakey]

yeah i use the knee method ,but what luke was asking was if you can use a bender in conjunction with a spring ,i cant see why not ,but as i say ,its getting the spring out again!
atvbitwww

now is that a british standard knee?

and i never have trouble getting the spring out

the missus always wonder where her fairy liquid is gone when i am doing plastic conduit....

 

[joe_berks]

i normally bend it over my knee , but i did try it in a hilmor and it was fine i would use a hilmor if there was one to hand. try it!

 

[devlin maguire]

Make life easy for yourself and use a hair dryer works great even in situ, and get a couple of formers in fact any thing with a radius can be used
Mac

 

[pennywise]

In the states they use really large diameter PVC conduit and duct, they use a heating case to make it more pliable, it like a hot box, there on the Internet look quite fancy. I usally use the spring around the knee jobby though, and I've just started to thread PVC as well never thought it would work but it does!

 

[Guest123]

The correct size spring and across the knee is the only way I've ever done it.

Just make sure the springs aren't mixed up i.e a heavy gauge spring in standard gauge conduit....thats when the kinks start to appear.

The ends of the springs are colour coded, red or green I think.

 

[Davey101]

Talk about raising the dead!

Not much point in using a bender for plastic, unless you have a lot of cables, or an FP etc, and need a slow bend. Nothing really wrong with using a bender, but the bends can end up looking a little large, wouldnt do it if its surface tube.

 

[Notsosmart]

Just make sure the springs aren't mixed up i.e a heavy gauge spring in standard gauge conduit....thats when the kinks start to appear.

The ends of the springs are colour coded, red or green I think.

I have attached colour coded singles, can get hairy pulling the spring out of a double set near the middle of a length though!

 

[Guest123]

I know what you mean.....I usually stand on the wire attached to the end of the spring and pull it out that way. When it gives up and shoots out at least then it only smashes into your steelie rather than smashing the bones in your fingers!!!!!!!!

 

[Notsosmart]

Yeh you only use your hands a couple of times before you learn that lesson

 

[lewlec]

The correct size spring and across the knee is the only way I've ever done it.

Just make sure the springs aren't mixed up i.e a heavy gauge spring in standard gauge conduit....thats when the kinks start to appear.

The ends of the springs are colour coded, red or green I think.

hi lenny

thanks for that, i wasnt aware of the different colours on the springs.. that explains the cursing of my new spring a few weeks ago!!!

regards
gary