Conduit Bending Calculator — Stubs, Offsets & Saddles
Free · works offline · no account · NEC 2023 tables
The bender math, without scratching it into the gorilla glue bucket: stub take-up by bender and size, offset distance-between-bends and shrink by angle, and three-point saddle center/outer marks.
Open the free calculator →How the math works
Stub-ups subtract the bender’s take-up from the stub height to find the mark. Offsets use the cosecant of the bend angle — distance between bends = offset depth × multiplier (30° → 2.0, 45° → 1.4, 60° → 1.2) — with shrink per inch of depth by angle (30° → ¼ in). Three-point saddles put the center bend at the obstacle center plus shrink, with outer marks at the multiplier spacing for the chosen center angle.
Worked example
4-inch offset at 30°
- Multiplier at 30° = 2.0 → marks 8 in apart
- Shrink ≈ ¼ in per inch of offset = 1 in
- Push the first mark 1 in farther from the end.
FAQ
- Which angle should I bend offsets at?
- 30° is the field favorite: the multiplier is exactly 2 (easy math) and the shallow angle pulls wire easier. Go steeper only where space is tight.
- What take-up does my bender use?
- Take-up depends on bender shoe and conduit size — typical EMT hand benders run 5 in (½"), 6 in (¾"), 8 in (1"). OhmBase carries per-size values for EMT and rigid shoes.
- Does bending count against conduit fill or pulls?
- Bends don’t change fill, but the NEC limits total bends to 360° between pull points (Chapter 9 raceway articles) — OhmBase’s wire-pull tool tracks that.