[SML] Long, graceful, bend in conduit

[Dougherty, Jim]

To add another method to the conversation besides “gradual weighting”, “bend it to blocks screwed to the floor” and “go pound sand” (a description I love, despite it being not at all what Bill S suggested), I’ll add that you can draw the curve you want on the floor then use a standard conduit bender to make gradual bends, laying your piece on the floor regularly to check progress. You can undo curves bent too far by using the bender in the other direction. Fair warning, it takes practice to learn how far to go so as not to end up with a segmented curve. If you have the machine and dies, a metal bender like a Hossfeld can be used to the same effect.

Also, if you don’t specifically need it to be steel conduit you can fill PVC conduit or pipe with sand, heat it just to soften it and bend it to a template without as much spring back as the steel may have.  Here’s a link to a video on the technique (for which I take no credit or blame).  There are plenty similar ones out there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYTFDkX7s24

- Jim Dougherty
ATD, Middlebury College Theatre Department