# pvd coated ridgid (robroy)



## gpop

After watching some electricians threading ocal, robroy (pvc coated ridgid) i felt sorry for them and lent them one of our pony motor dies that was milled out to fit over the pvc coating. It removes the coating and cuts the threads at the same time alot like using a threading machine. They were stripping the coating with a knife then using a standard pony motor die.

They seemed amazed that we had customized our dies. We have been doing it this way for probably 15 years so it surprised me that they had never done it that way. 

How do you guys thread it?


----------



## Lone Crapshooter

Never worked for a contractor that had all of the correct tools to install ROBROY They may have had some but not the whole compliment.
I have never known a elecrtician that liked messing with that stuff. As for me I have done a little of it but not that much of it.

LC


----------



## macmikeman

I'm like Lone Crapshooter, done some, but not lots. So how does one "mill" said dies to fit for Ocal? I'd like to know this whole procedure , I have lots of spare dies of most sizes.


----------



## paulengr

Rob Roy rots from the inside out. Even if you coat the joints. From what I’ve seen in cooling towers and chemical plants at best it is no better than galvanized. At worst it is far worse because you can’t inspect it. Put it in if the customer insists but they are far better off with good quality tray and tray cable.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## gpop

macmikeman said:


> I'm like Lone Crapshooter, done some, but not lots. So how does one "mill" said dies to fit for Ocal? I'd like to know this whole procedure , I have lots of spare dies of most sizes.



Just take a piece of ocal and a spare die to the machine shop. They will measure the pipe including coating and bore the hole in the back of the die so it fits over the rubber (it should be a loose fit but not sloppy). The 3/4" is the worst die as there's not much meat left after they make the hole larger. It will still work or you can pay extra and have a bushing installed. 

Spray the die a different color and re-install the teeth and you are good to go. (once bored it you can not use it on standard ridgid)

It will thread just like a standard pony motor die except you have to poke the rubber/shavings out of the die before using it on the next thread. As we are food grade we run alot of ocal type conduit. We even have the 555 dies for coated.


----------



## gpop

paulengr said:


> Rob Roy rots from the inside out. Even if you coat the joints. From what I’ve seen in cooling towers and chemical plants at best it is no better than galvanized. At worst it is far worse because you can’t inspect it. Put it in if the customer insists but they are far better off with good quality tray and tray cable.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


We have miles of it in some terrible areas including refrigeration cooling towers and it holds up fine to the chemicals. The inside is painted to resist rust. (some of the old original robroy did have a problem with the inside coating but i believe that was fixed years ago.). If water and chemicals made it inside the pipe then something went wrong with the install. 

We mainly use ocal but we have probably used ever manufacturer on the market at some point. The biggest problem use to be the LB covers as they were cheap but they seem to have fixed that problem. 

The only pipe we avoid is aluminum as some of our chemicals can eat that with in a month.


----------



## Lone Crapshooter

For bending you use the next size larger EMT shoe. I think it would pay you to get a 2"Plastibond shoe rather than mess with a hydraulic bender.
They do make Plastibond jaws for a 300 or 535 power vice and they make sleves that go around the conduit so you can hold it in a standard pipe vice.
As for the rotting Paulengr is 100% correct. But cooling towers are nasty places anyway.


----------



## gpop

Lone Crapshooter said:


> Never worked for a contractor that had all of the correct tools to install ROBROY They may have had some but not the whole compliment.
> I have never known a elecrtician that liked messing with that stuff. As for me I have done a little of it but not that much of it.
> 
> LC


I cant blame them if they dont have the tools to do it.


----------



## gpop

Lone Crapshooter said:


> For bending you use the next size larger EMT shoe. I think it would pay you to get a 2"Plastibond shoe rather than mess with a hydraulic bender.
> They do make Plastibond jaws for a 300 or 535 power vice and they make sleves that go around the conduit so you can hold it in a standard pipe vice.
> As for the rotting Paulengr is 100% correct. But cooling towers are nasty places anyway.


i dont have any emt shoes just the ridgid and coated (555) 1/2 to 1-1/4 and 1-1/2 to 2" anything larger we just buy pre-bends. As for Emt its old school hand bending up to 1" then its all pre-bends.


----------



## macmikeman

I don't have a wire mold bender either. It's kinda rare for macmikeman to not have some sort or another tool unless it's either a newfangled cordless drill for replacing a corded hole hawg, a wire mold bender, or robroy shoes and threader dies. I have lots of tools galore, I don't have any of those.................


----------



## Lone Crapshooter

If they are not goinging to have all of the tools then they should not try to do the work.
All that accomplishes is pi$$ing off the hands and the manangements gets upset and they cannot figure out why it's taking so long.
Investing in tools saves time and the next time a job comes around they will have the tools to do the job.


----------



## gpop

Lone Crapshooter said:


> If they are not goinging to have all of the tools then they should not try to do the work.
> All that accomplishes is pi$$ing off the hands and the manangements gets upset and they cannot figure out why it's taking so long.
> Investing in tools saves time and the next time a job comes around they will have the tools to do the job.


Turn up with a hand bender and no idea. be real nice to the electricians boss and borrow there tools. Do the job then pack up early and leave. Now you have the tools for the next job. I think ive lost 5 or 6 dies this way. Sometimes they even leave me a old standard die in place of our custom one. 

Every time the boss bitches about the cost then a few weeks later hes insisting that you lend the contractor tools as they going to slow and are in the way.


----------



## Cow

We have a couple pony dies marked with yellow paint that were opened up at a machine shop. We did 3/4 and 1 inch, the most common sizes for us. We also have the black ocal shoes for our 555. I haven't found the right inserts for our 535 or 1224 threaders yet, so we still end up leaving jaw marks when threading.


Fortunately, we don't do a lot of pvc coated.


----------



## John Valdes

Only seen it used. Never worked with it myself. Looks like I got lucky.


----------



## MechanicalDVR

Normally I used an adjustable die and ran it in twice, first to trim the jacket and second to finalize the thread.

One shop I worked in just reversed the actual dies in the threader head to not go through the back of the die head but you still had to chamfer the edge of the coating to get the die started.


----------



## sparky970

We install this daily. Buy the dies, bending shoes, tri stand jaws, and Z wrenches. Also, just an FYI only form 8 conduit bodies will make it a nema 4x installation, form 7 does not.


----------



## gpop

sparky970 said:


> We install this daily. Buy the dies, bending shoes, tri stand jaws, and Z wrenches. Also, just an FYI only form 8 conduit bodies will make it a nema 4x installation, form 7 does not.



What kind of dies do you use and how do they deal with the coating?


----------



## sparky970

gpop said:


> What kind of dies do you use and how do they deal with the coating?



Rigid makes dies for a 700. If you have a 300 or 535 use the same dies


----------



## gpop

sparky970 said:


> Rigid makes dies for a 700. If you have a 300 or 535 use the same dies



Its been years since ive bothered to search for pvc coated tools. Im glad to see that they finally are being made and marketed as such

http://www.calbond.com/available-tools/


----------



## MechanicalDVR

gpop said:


> Its been years since ive bothered to search for pvc coated tools. Im glad to see that they finally are being made and marketed as such
> 
> http://www.calbond.com/available-tools/


Not that I would use those tools now but thanks for posting that link.

I had no clue all those tools were available.

*I think that tool list should become a sticky!*


----------

