Construction Maintenance Electrician

Common Conduit Bending Mistakes to Avoid After Electrician College

February 01, 2022

Conduit bending isn’t an easy skill to master when it comes to replacing old electrical wiring or wiring a new home. For electricians, knowing how to correctly and safely bend conduit is a major part of your responsibilities. Knowing how to bend conduit allows you to make it work around different corners, overpass permanent objects and fit many angles. By applying the right amount of pressure and conducting the proper measurements, you can make a good conduit bend. 

Avoiding common conduit bending mistakes will prevent things from going wrong. Improperly bent conduits will underperform and wear out quickly. At North American Trade Schools, you’ll gain hands-on experience in conduit bending that will help you avoid common conduit bending mistakes.

Read on to learn about the common conduit bending mistakes to prepare for your trade. 

Apply the Right Pressure After Electrician Training

It’s important to have precision and add the right amount of pressure in the right place of the conduit. Applying an excessive amount of pressure won’t help to bend the conduit in the way you want. In fact, too much pressure can break your tools and delay your work even further. When you add more pressure on the bending point than is needed, the conduit can either break or flatten.

Electrician training will help teach you to apply all sorts of conduit bending techniques that are required for installation and prepare you for industry work in your apprenticeship and beyond.

Avoid Using the Wrong Machine or Tool

Knowing when to use and not to use machines to do the conduit bending for you will help you a lot with your electrical wiring and avoid any delays. There are computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine benders that are considered versatile and powerful and offer great precision in conduit bending. However, they should not be used for every conduit shape or simple bends–only for the complex shapes or bends that you can’t perform manually. Through your electrician school, you’ll know when to use or not to use these machines, and how to perform manual conduit bends. When you use manually controlled machines, you will notice that you will increase your output speed and save money.

Knowing when to use the right machine for conduit bending is essential to avoid any delays 

Avoid Flattening Too Much

With training and experience throughout your career, you’ll avoid the mistake of flattening the conduit too much. In some instances, flattening is okay for certain job requirements–while for other jobs, too much flattening will cause serious problems when it is time for you to do conduit bending. Applying the right pressure and stress to the outside radius is key in the conduit bending process. If you apply too much pressure and stress to the outside radius, the conduit will not be able to maintain its proper shape–causing the exterior to bend in, and therefore, flatten the tube. By using less pressure and utilizing the centreline radius which provides a larger bend, you will reduce the chance of excessive flattening. 

Avoid Wrinkling and Buckling

As mentioned earlier, conduit bending requires precision with the amount of pressure applied. Avoid any wrinkling or buckling from occurring by ensuring a smooth bend in the conduit. If you notice any wrinkles or buckling, the bend could cause problems down the line. 

You’ll know how to avoid the wrinkling and buckling of conduit bends after your electrician training

This wrinkling and buckling occurs when the cross-section of your bend is unable to support the pressure applied. This happens by using excessive pressure far from the die or by not using a mandrel tool when you should.

Interested in enrolling in electrician college?

Contact NATS for more information!

Keywords: electrician college, electrician school, electrician training

Visit Our Blog Directory