bending large PVC conduit

[jonness]

Will the weed burner torch cause you to fail an inspection? I used it in several spots on my 135' long 2" conduit run and also bent the wide sweep 90's at the ends. Pretty easy once you learn first by scorching a couple of practice pieces. Fortunately, there are no burn marks on my finished pieces.

What is the risk of failing an inspection when bending with a weed burner?

 

[jonness]

I found the code section that deals with this. Apparently, there's a lot of controversy about this, and it's important not to use a piece of conduit that has any evidence of discoloration.

352.24 Bends — How Made. Bends shall be so made that
the conduit will not be damaged and the internal diameter
of the conduit will not be effectively reduced. Field bends
shall be made only with bending equipment identified for the
purpose. The radius of the curve to the centerline of such
bends shall not be less than shown in Table 2, Chapter 9.

 

[meathooker]

As mentioned before slip it over your truck exhaust and walk away for an hour. My electrician buddy did that helped me and it was awesome

Also as mentioned before have your tried simply laying the pipe in the trench? I’d be surprised if it didn’t pretty much fall into place.

 

[sparky 1971]

I have never had to have a trench inspected. You can't have an inspection failed for using a weed burner if the damning evidence is buried. I bet if you glue a few pieces together, they will fall right in as a unit. Trying to heat and bend individual pieces of conduit is going to be an exercise in futility.

 

[pr3dict]

Core drill in a rotary hammer. Bosch SDS-MAX 3-1/4", 12" or 22" length listed.

https://www.boschtools.com/us/en/boschtools-ocs/sds-max-rotary-hammer-core-bits-1-pc--22580-c/#

Or an SDS-Plus 3-1/8" two-piece:

https://www.boschtools.com/us/en/bo...peedcore-thin-wall-core-bits-t3917sc-33867-p/

Biggest 'solid' rotary hammer bit I see on the Bosch site is a 2" SDS-MAX bit.

Although some more looking found a 3-1/8" x 24" Thru-Hole SDS-MAX bit.

https://www.boschtools.com/us/en/boschtools-ocs/sds-max-thru-hole-rotary-hammer-bits-hc6531-29791-p/

Biggest solid SDS-Plus that I see is 1".

https://www.boschtools.com/us/en/boschtools-ocs/sds-plus-bulldog-rotary-hammer-bits-hc2167-27890-p/

Although there is a Bulldog-Extreme 1-1/8" solid bit listed:

https://www.boschtools.com/us/en/bo...g-xtreme-rotary-hammer-bits-hcfc2287-27918-p/

Core bit and done though.

Although you could do the 'drill a whole bunch of smaller diameter holes on the desired circle perimeter and then knock out the center core' approach too.

So I bought the 3 1/8th 2 piece today. A little hesitant to use it because the female back of the lb conduit body I think is 3 1/4" also with how large this box to have the box be above grade by even an inch the hole would literally be at the top of the foundation. I'm afraid that by doing this I won't be able to create a waterproof seal around the pipe because the top will be the sil plate... Any recommendations?

 

[mikegt4]

About 40 years ago I worked at a place that did a lot of PVC pipe bending. We used an old Pizza oven, electrically powered, to heat the pipe then dropped it in a form to get the shape that we needed. We also pressed sheet plastic into forms, heated in the same oven.

My grand daughter manages a Pizza Hut, they don't use that type of pizza ovens any more, they just place them on a conveyor belt and run them under a heating element. I asked her the last time that I needed to bend a sheet of plastic, she said NO.