Steel Conduit 1 - Overview of Parts and Tools

Part 1 in a series on steel conduit. This episode covers the conduit itself, boxes, other accessories, tools required and a brief overview of how they are used.

[davidleversha]

As the internet gets ever more frustrating to use, mostly coming up with superficial rubbish, it’s an absolute delight to find real, proper, helpful information presented in such a clear and concise manner. I have never seen a more thorough and engaging presentation. I’m watching all your videos - no need to go anywhere else!. Thanks.

[davidr]

62k subscribers, Holly smoke...

Well done and of course we'll deserved. My favourite channel.

[mariah]

No. Stop. I missed the first 30 seconds of the intro because I was laughing so hard at the cute minions t-shirt. Love your videos and love The dry humour :-)

[cncdavenz]

Hi John, This takes me back to my apprenticeship when the conduit was 1 and 3/4 inch then they changed to 25 and 20mm. I remember bending the conduit using me knee or a length of timber with a hole drilled in it. Then the boss got a bending machine...good times. Copper piro was also a good product but too expensive now. Thanks for you videos. Cheers Dave.

[jamesmeader]

I’m learning about steel conduit to be able to run data cabling for CCTV on industrial sites and I already know before watching this video from John’s past videos this is going to be extremely useful. Thanks in advance John 👌

[Stronic]

Great video, this brings back memories of threading running couplers on 25mm pipe as a first year apprentice-seeing a yellow Hilmor bending machines still causes flashbacks..

[stephencoulthard]

I find using a vacuum cleaner with some flex conduit taped in the end can pull a string through to pull cable. Also can use if drilling through a box want to vacuum the mess as you do.

[andreim]

John's straight face and his hilarious shirts always make me giggle like a school girl.

[nocode]

Exalent vid as per with all John's vids.. & top tee-shirt very informative look forward to next part thank you

[bitTorrenter]

Don't forget to mention that with legacy conduit installations the boxes have 2BA threads, which is a larger thread diameter than M4.

[BrotherDevious]

Great, comprehensive intro to the subject. Thanks!

[peterargyropoulos]

I'm seeing a lot of comments on US conduit properties which are pretty inaccurate. Here are some common specs for US conduit types:

3/4-inch EMT (21mm inside diameter) Nominal wall thickness 0.049 in., 1.25mm (tubing is not allowed to be threaded)
3/4-inch rigid conduit (21mm inside diameter) Nominal wall thickness 0.107 in., 2.72mm (threaded with tapered threads)

Neither of these are bendable with bare hands unless you're really, really tough. For EMT trade sizes up to 1-inch and rigid trade sizes up to 3/4-inch, we generally use a hand bender. Above these sizes there are hand-powered benders, electric benders and hydraulic benders.

US practice would be to avoid the combination of bushing, coupling (coupler) and threaded conduit to minimize the number of joints when using the conduit as a ground fault path. We would typically use two lock nuts on boxes with knockouts, one inside, one outside the box to attach the conduit to the box, and a plastic or malleable iron bushing inside the box to cover the end of the conduit and prevent damage to wires. Cast boxes will be similar with factory threaded (tapered) entries. The tapers on the male and female threads form a pretty liquid--tight connection.

Set screw connected conduit has a very long tradition, and if installed properly can maintain ground continuity for a very long time especially when steel connectors and couplings are used (versus the zinc fittings which were very popular back in the 70s and 80s). That being said, it has become common practice to pull a separate ground conductor through conduit and not to rely wholly on the piping system for ground faults. This doesn't eliminate best installation practices required for installing conduit with set screw connectors and upon installation the conduit system must perform properly as a grounding conductor.

In general, metallic conduit is much more common in the US and Canada than in Europe and the installation of conduit here requires a more advanced level of craftsmanship than outside the US and Canada. Guys who do it often have really turned it into an art form.

[alanmarriott]

Any chance please JW you can do a video about how to measure to bends etc and how to finding bending point on conduit bending former please

[stoochy]

Great video. What would be great gangs to install on brick wall.

Looking for something that won’t go into plaster. I didn’t know what would look nice but be suitable for project. Thanks

[mdovideo]

Here in the United States we use 6/32 screws for switches and receptacles, and 8/32 screws for light fixtures. The screws have 32 threads per inch.

[devvynully]

This might be answered in a future video but how often is the earth wire attached to the conduit? After a certain distance? Every time the cable is broken out/terminated?

[johnmac]

Excellent video, Dr. Nefario, thank you ;-)

[kierantvyoutube]

john will you soon make a video about flexi conduit and the accesories involved in using / installing

[jimm]

Hi John any recommendations on stocks and dies please? Yours looks pretty solid but they seem to vary alot in quality.

[isoguy.]

I was glued to this vid from start to finish. Is thete a special tool for tightening the milled nuts like the one you used for the hexagonal ones? Thanks for sharing.