Spent 3 months running conduit through a casino ceiling in Reno before I figured out the trick

Everyone says to use the factory bend and save time. But after fighting 300 feet of EMT through that cramped drop ceiling with 8 different HVAC ducts in the way, I learned the factory bend just doesn't cut it. The hotel maintenance guy showed me how to heat and rebend each piece on site. Does anyone else skip the pre-bends and do all your offsets by hand like me?

2 comments

2 Comments

terryj4515d ago

Wow, that's a great tip about heating the bends on site - I've definitely been in that same boat fighting pre-bends in tight commercial ceilings! And @the_kevin nailed it, those factory bends are useless when you've got weird ductwork and pipes everywhere. Getting a tighter radius makes all the difference.

the_kevin16d ago

Yeah the factory bend thing is total bs for drops. I've been doing this 12 years and I heat and tweak every single offset by hand. Those pre-bends are garbage because no two ceilings are the same. You end up fighting it more than just doing it right the first time. Plus when you heat and bend on site you get way tighter radiuses that actually fit behind ducts and pipes. That hotel guy knew his stuff.