How to Bend a 1/2" Box Offset with a 1/2 EMT Bender

Well lets simply answer why it does apply to everyday people, if your an electrician and/or low voltage employee you'll be using such bends very often. It's the most common bend when working in such a field because almost everything you need to do on a job relies on you landing all of your wires into a 1900 or 4 by 4 square inch box. In order to do any of your splicing you''ll need to learn how to bend a simple box offset because most of the jobs you'll perform are in a commercial or industrial-like atmosphere as opposed to residential work. For example, in residential work, or simply house work you do not need to use any EMT (electrical metallic tubing) when doing any electrical or low voltage work because all of the work is spliced in plastic boxes, the cable runs are ran in the ceiling behind Sheetrock with romex cable as opposed to metal clad cable, (the only exception is if you happen to reside in Chicago than everything done in your house must be ran through EMT) which means every single wire in the house must be ran through pipe because if it's not you can get burned in violations as its a law you must abide in.

An offset is a simple procedure that must be done when working in the low voltage or electrical field. It involves the pipe being bent on two different directions on a single piece of EMT pipe to help up the height in which it can be used to either go up and over or under the many complicated objects that may be in the way, in order for you to land the pipe into an object whether it be into a 4 by 4 box, 4 by 11 box, a trough, or a cabinet. Perfect offsets can easily be achieved in a quick and precise manner if done right, it does take several steps in which it can make the process that much easier. As you already know an offset is two bends on the same bend that have the exact same degree measure and in which we use to go into boxes, troughs, or cabinets. Well a box offset requires a bend of no more than 5 degrees on both sides of the bend in order to get it to land in a box perfectly. Now I'll explain the process o how you could simply achieve this.

First, Start off by gathering all of the materials together in which you'll need to perform the tasks in which you'll need to perform the job right.

Second, mount the 4 by 4 or 4'11 box on the wall 48 inches from the ground to center and at least 12" of clearance from the wall. That by code is the proper way in which you can mount a box as well as follow the correct guidelines. When you mount the box be sure that the box is leveled off. Than knock out a hole on top of the box for 1/2" the smallest hole and not the 3/4" hole since your using 1/2" pipe and put in a 1/2" inch connector into the whole and tighten it up.

Third, Now your ready to make the box offset for the box. Start off by taking a stick of pipe and putting it into the 1/2" connector this is only for demonstration and a preferred method of mine. Now tighten the set screw of the connector for the EMT pipe. Now take your tape measure and measure from the back of your pipe to the wall that's the measurement you'll need to make your box offset.

Fourth, Take that measurement and add an extra inch to that measurement than mark that measurement on the EMT pipe. Now take the 1/2" bender in hand and place that pipe inside the bender now line up your mark with the arrow of the bender and than bend the pipe roughly to about the star mark now take the pipe out and reverse it inside the bender now about 1/2" from your previous mark bend the pipe down to the star again. Now take the pipe out from the bender notice the shape of the pipe its surreal isn't , now its a form of art worth mentioning.

Finally take the pipe and put it into the EMT connector of the wall that the box is mounted on.
Tighten the connector but don't over tighten it, now you have made the perfect box offset all but just following this one step by step process. Hopefully you'll be an expert in no time when it comes to making perfect box offsets without any help needed. A little side note( When putting pipe into connectors always support the EMT coming from the pipe, roughly about 14" and than 6 feet from that point on afterwords whether it be via one hole straps or Mineralc (cowboys). Thanks for taking the time to read this article and only one of my many articles.