How to Bend a Perfect Box Offset? Electricians Need to Know How to Bend Conduit.

As we all know, conduit bending is one of the terms of our trade and the act of bending conduit is an art! But it’s definitely a necessary art for us to be able to get from one place to another and install our wires in between. Offsets are a part of that bending art and can take some practice to master. In this episode of Electrician U, Dustin shows us how to bend the perfect box offset.

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A box offset is making a small bend up and then back down to get our conduit straight into a box while still leaving us a place to strap near the box. First. Line the bender shoe up with the end of the conduit. The next step is to step on the bender shoe WHILE pulling on the handle. An important step often overlooked by the average electrician, but it makes the entire bend area pull away from the ground, resulting in a wonky bend!! Remember, a box offset is small in up distance, about 3/8 of an inch, so you need to barely get the conduit to bend. Once you have the first bend done, just roll the conduit over 180 degrees, scoot the bender shoe back a couple inches, and put the same type of bend on the second side. That’s it!! The important thing to remember at this point is to get the conduit rolled so that its headed straight, not off to the side. As your first bend bent the conduit UP, then the second bend should start with the bend you just made pointing DOWN.
Once the offset bend is made, install the box where you want it, put a connector on the end of the conduit (making sure it is tightened properly with either the set screw or the compression fitting), install the connector/pipe in the box, and tighten the locknut! Make sure the conduit set screws are facing the same way (most of us generally tend to put the screw facing out) as the rest of the screws on other conduits and that the straps are facing the same way as others. While this may seem persnickety, it just makes the installation look more professional and uniform. A small action that can make an installation look really good, or really bad!
Another item to keep in mind is not to get too frustrated with yourself when learning HOW to bend conduit. Know that you are going to make mistakes. But if you approach it with the mindset to learn from your mistakes so that you repeat them less, you will have much more success! Even mistakes and blunders can be the best teachers IF you learn from them!! Even the great conduit bending electricians had to start off in the same place- from the beginning! Trust me when I say that even those electricians messed up plenty of conduit learning how to master bending. So give yourself some grace and have some patience!!
To be honest, PRACTICE is the best way to learn how to master the art of bending conduit! Watch videos, pay attention to others doing it, ask questions, read books, THEN PRACTICE! One (out of many!!) of the things that separates GOOD electricians from GREAT electricians is their ability to bend conduit. It can (figuratively) make or break an installation. Correct and attractive conduit bending will result in less customer questions and potentially lead to them calling YOU back next time they need something. Practice your conduit bending, sharpen those skills, and continue to lead that Sparky Life!!