So the next thing we're going to go over is the offset. This is also another
common bend you're gonna use every day as an electrician. This is when you're
running from one plane and you need to get to another. So your conduit actually
going to go and come down and hit that second plane. You can also use it if you are
going on a flat run and say the whole conduit system doesn't even move over, you can just move them all over at the same time.
So offsets consist of two separate bends. They're both going to the same degrees
and the main measurement you're looking for is the distance between bends. Now
every degree has a different multiplier for your distance between bends.
The most common degree we use is the 30 degree bend. The reason being is the distance
between bends is always times two, makes it really easy if you are doing a four
inch offset, the distance between bends is eight inches. Five inch offset, the
distance between bends is ten inches. Once you get into 10 degree bends, 45 degree
bends, 60 degree bends--those variables change. They get closer, so for that you
just look up what the multiplier is multiply your rise and that's going to be the distance between bends.
So for this instance I'm going to do an offset based of off 30 degree bends, so that I know my
distance is going to be twice of where I want. So before I start any of my measurements or markings I want to
decide what kind of offset am I doing. Am I doing a departing offset or am I doing a landing offset?
The difference in the two, is like we said before I'm always moving in one
direction with my conduit run. A departing offset would mean I'm going in this
direction and at some point maybe there's a ledge, and right after that
ledge I want to move down a step. I know that I can't start by bending until that
ledge ends. So I know it's a departing I want to make sure that the measurement I'm concentrating
and doing on first is my departing bend, and where it lands isn't
necessarily as important to me. Now a landing offset would be the opposite. I have a
ledge up here, and I'm coming this way. I know that I can't go too early or I'll
have a big piece of pipe before the ledge, and I can't go too late cause I'm going to hit
the ledge. I want to land right on that ledge, so
that mark that I'm looking at is kind of what I'm most caring about. I don't
really care how far back it leads, as long as it lands where I wanted it to on
that ledge. So for this instance I'm going to say I'm going to be doing a
landing offset. I'm going to be doing a five-inch step, so I'm running this way and I'm
gonna go up my five inch step. So just like in ninety's I really care about
where's my starting, and where does that land need to happen. So let's say that landing
point is up 36 inches. I'll make my first mark at 36 inches.
So I know I need to land there so I could think about it and go 'good'. Every bend
that happens in this conduit needs to happen before that landing position. So
if I'm doing a five inch rise I know I need 10 inches between bends. So I'm
gonna go this direction 10 inches and make another mark. Now one tip for this
as you see I just made both marks on one side of the pipe, you'll notice later on in
the video as I'm doing my bend, at a certain point I need to flip it 180 degrees. If I
leave both marks just like this my second mark is going to be lost I'm not
gonna be able to see it, so one thing I'll do is on my second mark I'll flip
the conduit a full 180 degrees
and make that second mark.
So I'm ready to go and start bending. Now offsets when we're bending offsets we
actually don't do these on the ground we do them up in the air. So I'm actually
going to be holding my conduit bender like this: up in the air! I'm going to put my
first bend in the bender and I'll line it up with the arrow. So one thing I'm double
checking myself on is I'm going to look at this, and go I'm doing a landing
offset, I know that all bends and all curvatures in the conduit need to be
before that landing point. So if my arrow is here I know that the
shoe being behind the arrow is correct. I know that the second bend is going to be
correct. If I had my bender set up in the opposite direction I know I can't have a
curve after the landing portion, so I know that's going to be incorrect. So I have it set
up on the arrow. Now when bending an offset there's a couple key components just
like doing 90s--balance and control that's kind of the key to this thing. You
want to make sure that, I see a lot of people when they are trying to bend this is sliding
this way, they're doing a whole bunch of stuff, and it's not going to work out. So the
main thing you want to do, is you want to really have control of the bender and of the pipe.
A good way to do this is kind of set your foot up behind the bender, to make sure that
there's no way it can slide out. Also you're using the pipe and you're using
the pressure to just kind of lightly hold it down, to make sure
that it doesn't slip and slide in and out of the bender.
So whenever I'm doing this I'm kind of always keeping a down pressure on the
conduit and that gives me full control and it will do what I need it to do.
So the second thing to think about when bending offsets is you do need to mimic the pressure,
just like when we did the 90 you have your foot pressure and it's against the
floor--that same principle applies when you're up in the air. It's just you don't
have any vacuum here to keep it in the shoe, so take care of that you want to
have as much pressure as possible as close to the shoe. You don't want to be
back here and try to bend because it's not going to have a lot of pressure here. The
whole conduit is just going to kind of bow. So with bending I like to use my my stomach
right here, whatever you got to do to keep as much weight going into that bender. So now I'm ready to make my first bend. I've got it on the mark and
I've decided I'm going to be using the 30-degree angle, so I'm looking to make
the bottom plane of this conduit in parallel with that angle. We get my
stomach involved and kind of get as close to the head as possible, putting pressure
and I'm gonna make a bend. I'm gonna get it pretty close, but
obviously my line of sight up here is not quite doing it. I want to make sure I get
on the proper plane. I want to be able to see my eyes. I can see this plane. I can
see the 30 degree mark. I can tell right now, I'm not close, so I'm going to give it a little more.
Now I'm going to recheck. When bending conduit I kind of find
that you know being patient, and doing it kind of step by step is going to save you a
lot of time, especially offsets. If we do too much of a bend, it's kind of difficult to
be pulling it out and readjusting. So I'll keep this kind of slow and a little
at a time. Okay. I feel like my plane here is matching up with the line there.
so I'm ready to my second bend. So I'm ready for my second bend here. I'm
actually going to keep the conduit in the in bender. I'm not gonna take
it out. All I'm going to be doing is moving it forward, getting to that second
bend mark. And this is what I was talking about earlier, I'm going to flip it 180
degrees. So when I flip it that second mark now appears, I can see it and line
it up with the arrow. So before I start bending I really want to make sure I've
got everything in line, because if you have the two bends and they're not quite
in line one's gonna be going that way and one's going to be going the other way.
So to do this, I kind of like the line of site down the pipe
and what I'm looking for is I'm looking for the lines of the bender, the line of
the pipe here, the line of the pipe down there, they should all kind of come into
focus with each other to where you don't see anything going this way or that way.
So it's real important that you kind of find that eyesight for
yourself to kind of know, good, I'm lined up where I want to be. I feel like I'm gonna have a straight bend here.
I feel like I got it nice and in line, and I'm going
to do the same principle using my stomach, a lot of pressure right here next to the
shoe and I'm going to match it up to 30 degrees.
Close, let me make adjustments.
So to check that this is a proper offset, I'm going to use the same principle I
did with 90s. I'm going to use my level. I'm going to check the ground level first,
from my perspective I have a left liner and then I'm gonna check this one. And this
is a left liner as well. So now beyond that, I'm now going to actually check and
make sure I have the rise that I want.
It's going to be at five inches. So now I know this conduit is good to go. I can hop up
there and put it into place. Now let's talk about adjustments. So say the conduit is a
little too much, a little too little. Lots of times, you know, if either of
these degrees of bends are different it's either gonna be facing down a
little, up a little, if it's a major concern you're probably going to want to
get it back in the bender and you know rework it. One thing with offsets is you
can make these slight adjustments by pulling or pushing up, but just like on
90s you don't want to do it kind of too far here, where you're you're more so
bending other parts of the conduit, not just the bends themselves. So if I want
to go down, I'm actually going to kind of grab in this middle area, so that I'm
just concentrating on unbending this just a little bit and putting pressure
down. I'm going to stand on the pipe and kind of do little motions like that. Same with if
you want to pull it up. If you need to pull up, little deals like that.
Make sure you're not doing a full on bend and adjusting the whole conduit as one, causing the whole thing to bow. And that's offsets!