My old way of bending conduit was costing me too much time

For years I used a hand bender for every 90 degree turn on 1/2 inch EMT. It worked fine but I was spending 10 minutes per bend measuring and checking my work. About 6 months ago I bought a used Greenlee 555 bender off Craigslist for 400 bucks. Now I can bend a perfect offset in 30 seconds flat. Has anyone else switched from hand bending to a machine and found it changed how you bid jobs?

4 comments

4 Comments

kevinw9415d ago

Man I never even thought about how that changes bidding, thats a whole different game when you can crank out bends that fast.

nancyramirez15d ago

Jumped on a 555 about a year ago after wrestling with a hand bender for way too long. My old process was like yours, I'd measure three times then mess it up anyway and waste material. Now I knock out a whole rack of 90s in like five minutes with zero mistakes. It completely changed how I bid too, I dropped my labor numbers by around 12 percent on a recent office building because I knew I could fly through the bends. Plus you don't have to worry about the conduit getting that weird kink near the shoe anymore. That alone saved me so much headache.

garcia.cameron15d ago

Dude same thing happened to me except I switched from a hand bender to a 555 about two years ago. I used to dread doing long runs with a ton of kicks and offsets, now I can crank them out in a few minutes. It totally changed how I price jobs too, I shaved like 15 percent off my labor estimate on big commercial work. Honestly it pays for itself after a few jobs.

oliviabutler15d ago

The 555 is definitely a game changer for speed, but it's not quite 15 percent off labor on big jobs. More like 10-12 percent once you factor in the setup time. I've run the numbers on a few hospitals and schools, and the savings come from not re-bending mistakes rather than just speed.