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Bending rigid conduit in the cold got me last week
I was out at a job site in Spokane last Tuesday trying to bend some 1/2 inch rigid and the metal just didn't want to cooperate like it does in summer. Last month I could do a 90 degree bend in under a minute flat, but last week I ended up with two kinked pieces before I got one right. Any of you guys have a trick for bending when it's below freezing outside?
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rileyl677d ago
Haha "under a minute flat" - I bet that pipe was feeling real smug at the time too. Sounds like you got initiated into the cold weather club the hard way, nothing beats that moment when you hear the metal start to creak and you just know you're about to add a kinked piece to the scrap pile. Only trick I got is to warm the pipe up with a torch first but not too long or you'll melt the damn coating off. Or you could just move to Arizona like a smart person, but I guess that's not always an option.
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the_andrew7d ago
My buddy Mike out in Minnesota told me he had to buy a whole new bender one winter because the cold made his old one seize up so bad. He tried bending 3/4 inch rigid at like 10 degrees and the handle actually cracked on him. @rileyl67 mentioned the torch trick, that's what Mike does now too. He keeps a small propane torch in his truck and just warms the pipe for maybe 30 seconds before he bends it. He said one time he forgot and the pipe snapped in half like a twig, sent shards flying everywhere.
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