I work a lot in EMT conduit. I have a 1/2" conduit bender that bends to a 5" radius, and a 3/4" conduit bender that gives a 6" radius. I also find bent pieces of conduit around the lodge that have a somewhat larger radius than that.
Suppose I want a larger radius, say because a 12" or 18" radius will suffice in my application, and would make pulling easier. Or in one case I need a larger radius (ceiling line to ceiling line in a corner) to avoid blocking a conduit body (wall corner to ceiling line) that will be effectively under the radius. Is that possible and how can I do it?
Best Answer
Using the same hand-bending tools you already have, you can approximate a larger bend radius by leaving short sections of straight conduit in between multiple bends. Below is a picture showing the minimum radius bend you currently achieve with your hand tool (picture on top) and then using three segments of bending coupled with two straight lengths to approximate a larger radius (picture on bottom).
My example in the second picture only shows 5 segments since the picture was made relatively quickly in paint, but the more interspersed bent/straight segments you have, the closer you will get to approximating a true circular radius. However, maybe you don't truly need a semicircle in all cases and just a few segments would do the trick.
Other alternatives I can think of include:
Trying to create your own hand tool for achieving common bends (if you're bending the same larger radius often -- perhaps something like an 18" car rim would work)
Investing thousands in a pipe bender that can handle conduit and do very smooth arbitrary bends.