How to use a conduit bender
To use a hand bender: put the pipe in the groove of the right-size shoe with the hook toward the end you measured from, line the arrow up with your mark, stand on the pedal, and pull the handle toward you in one steady motion until the pipe reads the angle you want on the shoe — then a touch more for springback. Your foot does most of the work; the handle just turns the pipe. If you are brand new, Bending, from zero is the gentler way in.
The parts of a hand bender
- Handle. A lever. Pull on it without your foot on the pedal and the pipe folds.
- Shoe (the head). The curved casting whose groove supports the pipe wall round the bend.
- Hook. At the front of the shoe. It grips the pipe. The pipe on the hook side is the part that rises.
- Arrow. The mark you use most. For a stub-up and for every bend of an offset, your pencil line goes under the arrow.
- Star, or back-of-bend mark. Where the back of a finished 90 lands. For the second 90 of a back-to-back, or a 90 tight to a wall.
- Saddle-centre mark. Often a notch in the rim or a teardrop on the side: the centre bend of a three-point saddle goes here. Check it on measure your bender.
- Degree marks. 10°, 22.5°, 30°, 45°, 60° on most shoes, read where the pipe leaves the shoe.
- Foot pedal. Your weight here keeps the pipe seated in the groove.
- Take-up stamp. One figure per pipe the head takes. It belongs to that tool; if it has worn off, one test bend on the take-up page gives it back.
Pick the right shoe
The groove has to match the pipe. Too big and the wall flattens into the gap and the bend comes out oval or kinked; too small and the pipe will not seat. Read the head: most are cast with the pipe they take, and many take two — an EMT size and the rigid or IMC size whose outside diameter fits the same groove. Each has its own take-up, so "a 3/4 bender" is not enough: you want the figure for this head and this pipe.
A floor bend, step by step
Most bends are made on the floor, and it wants to be hard and flat: soft ground lets the pipe dip under the shoe and your angles wander.
- Mark. Put a pencil line all the way round the pipe, and write the figure beside it with an arrow pointing to the end you measured from.
- Seat the pipe. Pipe flat on a hard floor, bender over it with the pipe in the groove of the shoe and the hook toward the end you measured from. For a stub, that is the end that will stand up.
- Line up. Slide the bender until the arrow sits dead on the line. Look at it from the side, square to the pipe, not from above.
- Foot on. Heel on the pedal and your weight on it before the handle moves. Take up the slack until the hook bites, then check the arrow is still on the line.
- Pull. One steady pull toward you, the handle kept in line with the pipe so the bend stays in one plane. Keep your foot pressure on the whole way round.
- Read and stop. Watch the degree marks from the side as the pipe comes up the shoe. Go a touch past the line you want, then let off and let the pipe relax back.
- Check. Put a level or a square on it before it leaves the bender. A few degrees short is easy to pull now, not once the next bend is in.
One foot on the pedal, the other planted behind for balance, hands high on the handle, pulling toward your body. If the bend takes a heave rather than a pull, stop: the pipe is too big for a hand bender or the shoe is wrong.
Air bends: handle on the floor
Turn the bender over, stand the end of the handle on the floor, lay the pipe across the top of the shoe with the hook holding it, and push the pipe down around the shoe. Same tool, same marks.
Use them for short pieces, small offsets and box offsets, and second bends where the first would hit the floor. Brace the handle with a foot or a knee so the head cannot walk, and push with your hands close to the shoe. The angle reads the same way, and at eye level.
Reading the angle
Read the degree marks from the side, level with the head: the bend is at 30° when the pipe, where it leaves the shoe, lines up with the 30 line. From above you sight the wrong edge of the pipe and read a few degrees out.
Check a new bender with a level. With the long end flat on the floor, the rising leg's angle from level is the bend angle: plumb is 90°, and an angle finder or a level app on the leg reads anything between. On many benders the handle stands near plumb at about 45° — a handy cross-check, once you have confirmed it on yours.
Keeping bends in plane
The trouble starts on the second bend, when the pipe has to go back in the shoe exactly where it was — or exactly a half turn from it. Draw a straight pencil line along the top of the pipe between the marks before the first bend. For the second bend of an offset, roll the pipe until that line is dead underneath; for a back-to-back or a kick, leave it dead on top. Sight down the pipe before you pull: the first bend points straight up or straight down, never off to one side. The offset guide shows what a partial roll does.
Retour élastique
Take the pressure off a bend and it relaxes open a little, so a pull that stopped dead on the 30 line reads less than 30. Pull a touch past every line — EMT gives back a little, rigid and IMC more. Test 4 on measure your bender finds it: pull a scrap exactly to the 30 line, let off, and read what it settled at. Overpull both bends of an offset the same, or the far leg climbs.
What goes wrong
The pipe kinks
What you see: a crease or flat on the inside of the bend.
Why: the handle was pulled without weight on the pedal, or the shoe is too big for the pipe.
Fix: foot first, then the handle, and the right groove. A kinked bend is scrap; cut it out.
The bend lands late
What you see: the bend further from the end than the mark, by a varying amount.
Why: the pipe crept in the shoe before the hook bit.
Fix: take up the slack gently, check the arrow is still on the line, then pull.
The stub is the long end
What you see: the long end of the stick standing up.
Why: the hook faced the wrong way.
Fix: the end you measured from goes on the hook side. Every time.
Every bend a few degrees shy
What you see: 90s that lean, offsets whose far leg climbs.
Why: springback, or the degree line read from above.
Fix: read from the side, overpull a touch, and check the first few with a level. More on the common mistakes page.
Questions
- Which end of the pipe goes toward the hook?
- The end you measured from. On a floor bend the pipe on the hook side is the part that rises, so for a stub-up the free end goes toward the hook and the long end lies under your foot.
- Why does my pipe kink in the bender?
- Almost always the handle was pulled without enough weight on the pedal, so the pipe lifted out of the groove and folded instead of wrapping the shoe. Weight on the foot first, then the pull. A shoe too big for the pipe does it too.
- How do I know when I have reached 90 degrees?
- Watch the pipe against the degree marks on the side of the shoe, then confirm with a level on the rising leg: plumb is 90. Pull a touch past and let it relax back.
- How much should I go past the line for springback?
- Enough that the pipe settles on the line when you let off, which is a figure for your pipe and your bender. Pull a scrap exactly to the 30 line, let off, and read what it relaxed to. Use the same overpull on every bend of an offset or saddle.