# Large radius conduit bends



## bushwhacker (Jun 30, 2012)

Anyone know a good way to bend 3/4" rigid with a large radius like around a water tank, I do have a electric bender but I don't think a lot of 3 degree bends would look right.


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## Switched (Dec 23, 2012)

A hickey?....But then you are essentially doing the same thing, a lot of small bends!


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## Vintage Sounds (Oct 23, 2009)

Maybe this?

http://www.ericksenbender.net/


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## uconduit (Jun 6, 2012)

can you use the tank itself?


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## NacBooster29 (Oct 25, 2010)

I had to bend some 3/4" rigid on top of a 100' lng tank. There was a few welded brackets u used to kick a bunch of small bends. It saved from lugging the pipe and bender up the stairs. There wad a ton of stairs wrapping around the tank


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## Switched (Dec 23, 2012)

Vintage Sounds said:


> Maybe this?
> 
> http://www.ericksenbender.net/


Do you have one of those? Does it work well?

Looks interesting. Might be nice on a service truck where space is limited and we don't bend every day.


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## Switched (Dec 23, 2012)

Never mind! 

I just looked again, LOL, long radius bender. Not really something I need!


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## Vintage Sounds (Oct 23, 2009)

Switched said:


> Do you have one of those? Does it work well?
> 
> Looks interesting. Might be nice on a service truck where space is limited and we don't bend every day.


I don't, but I definitely want one. I know there is at least one person on here who does, and described it in a thread somewhere. There have been a lot of times where I wished I had one of these.


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## Jlarson (Jun 28, 2009)

Clamp it down and bend it around.


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## ptcrtn (Mar 14, 2011)

Jlarson said:


> Clamp it down and bend it around.


That is how I have done it with larger conduit than 3/4


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## Cow (Jan 16, 2008)

When I do grain tanks, I eyeball them. I don't use a million straps to hold the pipe to the tank. Tweak it one way or another until it lays in there nice. Time consuming, but not impossible.

I have a Masterbender app on my Ipod that does segment bending but I haven't needed it on a job yet. I might try to use it next time I do a tank or need to make a homemade LR sweep.


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## Supfoolitschris (Jan 29, 2013)

Use pvc hehe


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## uconduit (Jun 6, 2012)

NacBooster29 said:


> I had to bend some 3/4" rigid on top of a 100' lng tank. There was a few welded brackets u used to kick a bunch of small bends. It saved from lugging the pipe and bender up the stairs. There wad a ton of stairs wrapping around the tank


It could be worse, it could've been a tank 100 ft tall with ladders


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## NacBooster29 (Oct 25, 2010)

uconduit said:


> It could be worse, it could've been a tank 100 ft tall with ladders


Yeah the stairs were narrow and carrying a bundle of like was trickey. Just because if the curve of the tank and the stairs being so narrow. We had a boom for the riser runs.


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## don_resqcapt19 (Jul 18, 2010)

I haven't done any of that in a long time, but we always used eighteen 5° shots to bend long radius 90s. You would multiply the radius by 1.57 and divide that by 18 to get the bend spacing. This was used mostly for concentric bends. for 3/4 around a tank we would often just fasten it and bend it around the tank.


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## Celtic (Nov 19, 2007)

Segment bend using a hand bender...Don has supplied the forumula


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

I had to bend a couple of conduits around a catwalk railing on a wastewater aeration pond (big round tank). Well the catwalk wasn't actually circular, it was more like, I dunno, a 25-gon. There was a railing post every 6 feet, I crunched the numbers and wound up making something like a 6.5 degree bend before and after each post. Worked out pretty good (it was 3/4" aluminum rigid so easy to make small bends).










In retrospect it would've been a lot easier to wrap them around the outside of the catwalk :laughing:


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## onewirehookup (Apr 21, 2011)

In retrospect it would've been a lot easier to wrap them around the outside of the catwalk :laughing:[/QUOTE]

Admit it you did it just to say you could. Lol. Looks good by the way.


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

onewirehookup said:


> Admit it you did it just to say you could. Lol. Looks good by the way.


Wrapping around the inside worked okay, but after a few sticks of pipe I realized that I had to unstrap the last 3 or 4 supports just to get the pipe far enough away from the rail to spin it on :laughing: Wrapping around the outside would have allowed me to strap & spin as I went. I don't know why I didn't think of that earlier. By that time I was committed though so I just went with it. Didn't take much time either way.


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## stuiec (Sep 25, 2010)

erics37 said:


> I had to bend a couple of conduits around a catwalk railing on a wastewater aeration pond (big round tank). Well the catwalk wasn't actually circular, it was more like, I dunno, a 25-gon. There was a railing post every 6 feet, I crunched the numbers and wound up making something like a 6.5 degree bend before and after each post. Worked out pretty good (it was 3/4" aluminum rigid so easy to make small bends).


 
nice icosakaipentagon :nerd:


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

stuiec said:


> nice icosakaipentagon :nerd:


Peter D's not here so


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## sparky970 (Mar 19, 2008)

erics37 said:


> I had to bend a couple of conduits around a catwalk railing on a wastewater aeration pond (big round tank). Well the catwalk wasn't actually circular, it was more like, I dunno, a 25-gon. There was a railing post every 6 feet, I crunched the numbers and wound up making something like a 6.5 degree bend before and after each post. Worked out pretty good (it was 3/4" aluminum rigid so easy to make small bends).
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Seems odd to run aluminum


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

sparky970 said:


> Seems odd to run aluminum


The whole wastewater plant is done in aluminum rigid. Steel rusts out here crazy fast. Also, this place is immediately downwind of a big pulp mill, so there's all sorts of weird fallout constantly raining down :laughing:


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## bushwhacker (Jun 30, 2012)

I have 4 giant tanks to install lights on ( explosion proof LED ) ye haw! Will try your ideas out tomorrow


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## NacBooster29 (Oct 25, 2010)

bushwhacker said:


> I have 4 giant tanks to install lights on ( explosion proof LED ) ye haw! Will try your ideas out tomorrow


Do you have to put lights on the railings? I was wondering how the hell those guys followed the steps and were able to install all the conduit. Seems like a real pain. 
I did noticed they installed t's that were for 1 1/2 " then ran a piece of 1.5" vertically to support the fixture.


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## denny3992 (Jul 12, 2010)

Gotta love al... We use either al or pvc outside at my wwtp.... Get spoiled really quick!!


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## denny3992 (Jul 12, 2010)

NacBooster29 said:


> Do you have to put lights on the railings? I was wondering how the hell those guys followed the steps and were able to install all the conduit. Seems like a real pain.
> I did noticed they installed t's that were for 1 1/2 " then ran a piece of 1.5" vertically to support the fixture.


Thats the way ive done it in the past


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## jza (Oct 31, 2009)

Anyone ever install conduit on a curved cinder block wall?


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## melrub480v (Apr 25, 2021)

bushwhacker said:


> Anyone know a good way to bend 3/4" rigid with a large radius like around a water tank, I do have a electric bender but I don't think a lot of 3 degree bends would look right.


That's exactly what you would need to bend to (3°) , to get a smooth looking bebe around that tank.


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## Slay301 (Apr 23, 2018)

Strut straps and aluminum conduit


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