# 3" EMT Bending



## TPBECI (Dec 8, 2016)

We have a Greenlee 881 Bender, we don't use it very often. With the 3" 5026300 shoe and the 5026376 follow bar it is kinking the pipe. When we call tech support they want to sell us a new follow bar. Does anyone have any experience with these items?


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

Try switching to another brand of 3'' emt. Some brands are just complete Chinese junk .


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## sbrn33 (Mar 15, 2007)

I have never seen a follow bar wear out. I would maybe try a different brand of pipe. Are the follow bar and the shoe meeting up right?


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## TPBECI (Dec 8, 2016)

sbrn33 said:


> I have never seen a follow bar wear out. I would maybe try a different brand of pipe. Are the follow bar and the shoe meeting up right?


Yes the are meeting up. The new follow bar they want to sell me is a different model number, I guess they have made improvements, but I don't want to spend the $1,000+ for the new one. I will try a different manufacturer. Thank you,


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

You should make a youtube video of it in action and post it here so we can engineer some hacks and get it to work for you. One day if time permits , I will make one of my 555 bending 2'' emt, and then show it with the back of the housing removed and the comedy of how I replaced everything except the motor with sundry parts I removed and scavaged from doing so many commercial air conditioning replacement jobs.


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## Tactical Sparky (Sep 6, 2015)

Make sure you have the ram in the correct holes in the side plates or kinking may happen. I have seen some idiots completely blow the seals out in this instance.


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## cabletie (Feb 12, 2011)

Maybe try and put a piece of flat stock behind the follow bar. Try different size thicknesses. 

With the electric benders you can adjust the squeeze. Not enough and it kinks. Too much and you get the ridges on the side. 

Does it kink through the whole 90, or just the beginning? I could see someone trying to bend rigid with it and screwing up the shoe. Maybe all they needed was a little kick, bent the shoe, and now it kinks in the beginning of the bend.


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## TGGT (Oct 28, 2012)

Is the follow bar facing the right way? They'll kink if they're in backwards.


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## Flyingsod (Jul 11, 2013)

I had a temp once that cleaned the bender parts of all dust and dirt and would use penetrating oil on the shoe whenever he bent. It helped but it was a dif kind of bender with rollers. 

Sent from my C6725 using Tapatalk


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## Jhellwig (Jun 18, 2014)

It has to be the conduit or the wrong shoe. There is no pinch to adjust on these. Are you using the emt hole on the shoe? The saddle on the end of the shoe might be backwards also but I wouldn't think that would cause it to kink.


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## telsa (May 22, 2015)

macmikeman said:


> Try switching to another brand of 3'' emt. Some brands are just complete Chinese junk .


Don't be surprised if the EMT is off spec.


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## Signal1 (Feb 10, 2016)

Jhellwig said:


> It has to be the conduit or the wrong shoe. There is no pinch to adjust on these. *Are you using the emt hole on the shoe?* The saddle on the end of the shoe might be backwards also but I wouldn't think that would cause it to kink.


That's what I was going to say, one hole is for EMT and one is for rigid.
If you have the ram attached to the shoe in the wrong hole it will kink.

Of course I've never done that before.


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## TPBECI (Dec 8, 2016)

*3" emt*



macmikeman said:


> You should make a youtube video of it in action and post it here so we can engineer some hacks and get it to work for you. One day if time permits , I will make one of my 555 bending 2'' emt, and then show it with the back of the housing removed and the comedy of how I replaced everything except the motor with sundry parts I removed and scavaged from doing so many commercial air conditioning replacement jobs.


Thank you for your help, it was the conduit manufacturer. Allied kinks, Wheatland did not. Wanted to send pictures but not sure how to attach. Thanks again!


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## wcord (Jan 23, 2011)

Had a bad batch of 4", and couldnt wait for a new shipment.
Filled the EMT with sand, and no kinks

It worked, but took time to clean out the sand ( middle of winter on the 30th floor, with no car wash within miles)


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## TGGT (Oct 28, 2012)

wcord said:


> Had a bad batch of 4", and couldnt wait for a new shipment.
> Filled the EMT with sand, and no kinks
> 
> It worked, but took time to clean out the sand ( middle of winter on the 30th floor, with no car wash within miles)


Did the cold have something to do with it?

I was just hand bending 1'' emt and I could not keep it from wrinkling. I didn't have any problem with it in the summer.


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## wcord (Jan 23, 2011)

TGGT said:


> Did the cold have something to do with it?
> 
> I was just hand bending 1'' emt and I could not keep it from wrinkling. I didn't have any problem with it in the summer.


No, the floor was enclosed and heated.
Just a bad batch of pipe.
Never had a problem bending pipe at -30 or 40, at least with the pipe. Me, now that's a different story at -30


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## ponyboy (Nov 18, 2012)

I had a lift of 3/4 once that had the manufacturer name lightly stamped on the pipe like every 3' or something like that and if that stamp was inside the shoe of the bender it would crinkle at that spot. I realized what was going on after a couple bends and sent the entire lift back. Can't remember the manufacturer but I haven't seen it since. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## TPBECI (Dec 8, 2016)

Biscuits said:


> I had a lift of 3/4 once that had the manufacturer name lightly stamped on the pipe like every 3' or something like that and if that stamp was inside the shoe of the bender it would crinkle at that spot. I realized what was going on after a couple bends and sent the entire lift back. Can't remember the manufacturer but I haven't seen it since.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I wanted to correct my mistake, the conduit that didn't kink was Western not Wheatland.


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