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Making Offset bends in electrical conduit is pretty easy. I will show you step by step how to make the Offset bend using an IDEAL Hand Conduit Bender.
In this video I will show you one way to make an Offset bend in a ½ inch EMT conduit using a hand conduit bender from IDEAL.
The offset bend is used when an obstruction requires a change in the conduit’s plane. It actually is two bends in the length of conduit that will allow the conduit to go over the obstruction and continue along the path. Before making an offset bend, you must choose the most appropriate angles for the offset. Keep in mind that shallow bends make for easier wire pulling and steeper bends will conserve space but harder to pull through. For small kicks of 1 to 2 inches that feed electrical outlet boxes a 10° offset is generally used. For obstructions between one and 6 inches 30° bends seem to work best and for obstructions that are in 8 inches or more 45° bends are recommended. However any of these angles can be used to create this offset.
For this demonstration I will use our catalog number 74 - 026 Ductile iron head bender from IDEAL. The ductile iron head benders are typically preferred by the professionals as they will last longer than aluminum bender heads which are lighter weight but less durable.
Since we’re bending angles in a length of conduit trigonometry comes into play and depending on the degree of the bends we are making a certain shrink amount and distance between bends will need to be calculated.
I’m working with a length of conduit that is 60 inches long and because of the two bends we will make to create the offset the overall length of the conduit will shrink by a certain amount which is dependent on the degree of bend we are using.
When using 22 ½ degree bends the shrink amount is 3/16” for every inch of obstruction to go over and the multiplier to determine the distance between bends is 2.5. For 30° bends the shrink amount is ¼ inch and the multiplier is 2.0 and for 45° bends the shrink amount is 3/8” and the multiplier is 1.4.
We make this easy by providing an offset bending guide on the handle of every Ideal bender.
Looking at the offset bending guide for a 4 inch offset using two 30° bends. The guide gives us a shrink amount of 1 inch and a distance between bends of 8 inches. That follows along with the shrink amount and multiplier given for a 30° bend with a 4” obstruction. 4 X ¼” = 1” and 2 X4”=8"
Step one is to measure the distance from the last coupling to the obstruction. In my example that is 36 inches.
Step two is to add the shrink amount from the table to the measured distance and make your first mark on the conduit at 36+1 or 37 inches. Contractors generally use a pencil to mark the conduit so it can be erased later. In my example I will use a permanent marker and mark the conduit all the way around so the mark will not get lost in the conduit head when bending.
Step three is to make the second mark on the conduit at 37 - 8 inches or at 29 inches which is the distance between the two bends.
Offset bends are done in the air not on the ground. Simply stand the bender with the handle pointing down and bender head closer to you.
Step four is to align the mark at 37 inches with the arrow on the bender head. Using the graduated marks on the bender head bend the conduit to 30°, the bottom of the conduit will be lined up with the 30° mark on the bender head.
To do this bend your knees and lower your center of gravity, set 1 foot next to the bottom of the bender handle near the ground to hold it in place and then tuck the conduit under your arm and bend the conduit using a steady pressure to prevent any wrinkles or kinks.
Step five is to slide the conduit in the bender head and align the second mark at 29 inches with the arrow. Make sure to align the two bends before making the second bend. Carefully line up the first bend with the second bend or you’ll end up with a dog-leg. Any time you’ve got two or more bends in a pipe, there’s the potential for what electricians call a dog-leg if the bends aren’t aligned. This creates a problem in the wall, and doesn’t make for a professional looking bend.
Use the handle on the bender to align the first bend with the second bend. Then using a similar technique bend the second 30° bend creating the 4 inch offset.
Using a tape measure we can check the accuracy of the bender and you can see the offset is 36 inches from the end of the conduit and the offset is 4”.
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