in this video we continue on a series of videos looking at steel conduit in previous videos we've
looked at saddles boxes and some of those rarer boxes and in the last video towards the end of it
you started building the stocks and dies which links in nicely doesn't it what we're doing today
yeah we're going to be cutting and threading now so we're going to thread a piece of steel conduit
now if i've got a length of steel conduit maybe from the van or the stores at college
how long is it likely to be three meters it will be three meters in length and that's
really important because in the old days it used to be 3.75 meters and that was a little
bit awkward when you think about the electrician and the van isn't it yeah so now we've got the
pipe tubes on top of the vans they're three meters so it fits in there nice
okay so we're gonna cut we're gonna thread it and we're gonna thread it as if we're simulating
first of all putting a coupler and therefore a bush on and then we're
going to do a spouted box do you want to set up your conduit stocks and guys against for me
okay so we've got our stocks gonna put the handles in first then just screw in
what i always used to say but that actually with the handles on that was the stocks but
you're right that's a stock and the handles in place we're going to be threading 20 mil so we're
going to need we've got our 20 mil die we've got 25 here we're only going to be using 20 mil now
so unscrew the nuts first so we can drop the guide in and the guide again is for 20 mil
conduit that's right yeah so we pop our guide in the actual die itself is handed isn't it
that's right yeah so when we drop our day in we need to make sure it's sat like that so the nuts
can clamp down on it and how tight are you going to do those nuts just finger tight no more i think
often apprentices tend to wrench them really tight and they only need to be finger tight yeah so
that's ready to cut a thread onto our conduit now a length of conduit which you said would be three
meters has threads on both ends doesn't it so we have a look at a threaded conduit yep so this is
how it comes one cup of one end and a thread and we're going to practice putting a thread on here
so we've got a thread about half the length of a coupler right so if we could see that from
the outside you can see we're just short of a couple there which is about right we don't want
them touching each other so common method of connecting to a conduit to a socket or switch
metal clad obviously is to use a coupler and what we've got there is a male bush isn't it yeah
so we're going to simulate doing the thread for that and we're also going to put it into a spouted
box which we've got over here so we've got a spout with box as well so that just simply needs the
conduit threading doesn't it the order is going to a spouted box so we'll show both of those
if you want to pop your conduit in we're going to make a cutting it first aren't we
yeah that's right so just remind me what the jaws of this vice is it's a round round jaw clamp
okay so why do we need a round jaw vice on our conduit bending machine to make sure we make sure
that we don't crush our flat on this conduit at all okay so that's there now we've got a hacksaw
now it's important we get the blade in correctly and the right number of teeth on our hacksaw blade
yep so you've got a new one there to insert can you first of all show me which way round it needs
to go yep so we're gonna have the arrow pointing away from us okay so there's a little arrow on the
end down it's important when you're training to make sure that goes on correctly the number of TPI
or teeth per inch is really important as well we said what would be the minimum number of TPI would
need we want a minimum of 24 teeth per inch okay as you can see there and so what's the thinking
behind having lots of teeth when cutting metal yep so that's better at cutting harder materials
so if i think about cutting wood i've got a few teeth that are very big
in order to cut wood but i'm actually cutting something really hard so as i'm using a hard
material i need lots of teeth but they're fine teeth aren't they that's right yeah
i see that that is a bi-metal blade we'd rather it be a high-speed steel one and so again if you're
getting a hacksaw blade and you get a high speed steel one that would be better for me
so we're just going to make a cut somewhere on our conduit in order that we can start
the threading process so we're going to end up cutting the thread off that's on there
but as i'm looking at that conduit bending machine i can see it's set at a bit of an angle
there Jake yep so when we're cutting we don't want to be cutting with our hacksaw straight we need to
make sure on the same slight angle as the conduit is so you're going to slightly roll that over to
the side yeah that's right yeah i'm going to start off cutting now i'm going to start off really
short strokes just to get going and then it's going to be large strokes using the full blade
oh
it doesn't matter which end we look at so let's have a look at the short one in your hand so if
you want to lift that up to the camera so i can just see how square that end is so we're
gonna just make sure that this end is square before we actually thread it so we're gonna
need to use a file in order to do that so we're bringing our file so the end needs to be square
there we go i think i'm happy with that Gaz okay so we're nice and square on that and
before starting now if this wasn't a finished end all you say my students don't file it
until you know it's exactly the right length but we're just putting a thread on here so
here's a question for you would you ream it at this stage no not at this stage that's the last
thing we'll do once we've threaded it so we're going to cut a thread onto the end here now
lots of people do it in slightly different ways do you put any of the cutting compound
on at this stage no not at this stage okay so you're going to go in dry with
your stocks and dies yeah okay let's do that next time so really put a thread on them yep
so you'll notice i've got my foot Gary on the bottom of the conduit bender stopping that
from moving forward applying forward pressure as i'm doing these first turns just until it bites
yeah we're on now yeah you can hear that sound so if you pulled that back
that wouldn't come off with it i don't know so that thread's cut so what's the next process
so i'm going to take this back off i'm going to apply some lubricant and then start threading
so add the cutting compound to the end all over your thread while you get cutting compound
that's nice so yep there's a nice thread started there this should make it easier
to thread it yep so it's got an old hacksaw blade and use a brush a pvc uh
lid trunking lid anything whatever you've got if you've got nothing just slightly dip it in
so cutting compounds on
now there's another part important part of the technique now is that you're going
to do a few rotations forward is that right that's right yeah
and then i'm going to go back one just to clear all the swarf out and we might see that fall out
when we so as you're going forward what about three or four turns ah there it goes yeah let's
see drop out yeah so that swarf there if it was left in would create a bad thread yep
so no need to apply any forward pressure
now yeah it's all that's swarf coming out and how many threads are going to have hanging
out the back of the actual die so about two threads poking out so we're not quite there yet
yeah there we go so you think having two threads out there it's gonna be possibly half the length
thereabouts of a couple thereabouts yep okay let's give that a go then so before we introduce
the coupler we're gonna do what to the end of the conduit so we're gonna ream it and what's
the thinking about reaming the end for yep so we don't have any sharp edges on the inside we don't
want to damage cables as we're drawing it so those cables are single insulated pvc cables right yeah
so got a conduit reamer if we don't have one of those we can use a round file i'm gonna use the
reamer ah we can see yeah we can see that edge now is a lot shinier where obviously it is now smooth
yep so you can use your your cloth just to remove the cutting compound of the excess compound yeah
we're gonna put a coupler on this one first then we'll do a spouted box afterwards yep
i'll just tighten that up with some
grips there we go no need to over tighten got mad on that that's nice and tight and the thinking
is then that would probably go into a metal clad socket or switch and be connected via a male bush
yep so sandwiching that between the socket box and the bush like so yeah and again we'll show how
they're tightened up in a different video if we were to put it onto a spouted box so that coupler
comes off and we've threaded it for a spouted box you want to show me what that would look like
so off comes our 20 mil coupler which box are you going for so i've gone for the four
way or the intersection box okay we picked that up in a different video yeah that's
called an intersection box i called it a four way box as well
so if this was in situ you'd actually have to get it in the correct rotation when you're so you're
laying the right place so sometimes you have to take off and add a part of a thread on don't you
so if you just loosen it off out the vice and we'll just spin it around i'll look inside there
and we're probably gonna have about two threads showing yeah we should have yet so when i look
in there yeah see two threads you don't want to go all the way in because obviously it can roll
the edge and that can feel like a sharp edge so in order to connect into a spouted box no coupler
needed this time we just threaded the conduit and screwed it straight in that's it so there
we go we've seen how to thread conduit in order to facilitate either a coupler or a spouted box
where do you want to take us next so we'll look at bending conduit next we'll start with a 90
degree bend so continuation of this series of videos we'll start looking at bending it we'll
also do sets we'll do swan necks or bubble sets as well if there's anything you want to see in
this series please leave the comments below and Jake will try and get back to as many as he can