Hickeys

I remember a few months back a long discussion of people looking for where to buy hickys (conduit benders). People were failing in lots of places which used to work.

Well ... recently, I was in "Home Despot" getting some electrical fixtures (outlets, boxes, etc) and noticed at the end of the asile where the wire and conduit type fittings were, a display of three sizes of hickys -- 1/2", 3/4" and 1".

So -- they *are* out there, and not in a particularly esoteric place.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols
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"DoN. Nichols" fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@Katana.d-and-d.com:

They have gooses' bridles over in the outdoor section, too.

LLoyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

We, um, won't ask -why- you knew that, Lloyd. ;)

Reply to
Larry Jaques

...

I recall the general thread but wasn't it a particular one somewhat out of the run-of-the-mill the OP was looking for????

Reply to
dpb

Yeah, he wanted one that would work with 1/2 inch EMT (thin wall). All he could find were for 1/2 inch ridged.

He did find one eventually in someones old stock at a reasonable price, if I remember correctly...

Reply to
Leon Fisk

Yeah, he wanted one that would work with 1/2 inch EMT (thin wall). All he could find were for 1/2 inch ridged.

...

Not that it matters but wasn't it t'other way 'round? EMT is pretty common; as noted the box stores have them...rigid, "not so much" any more; they expect you to buy the prefab bends, etc., it seems...plus, it's a lot more work to bend even 1/2" rigid...

(yeah, I'm hangin' around this am inside waiting for a service rep call, looking for diversion while waiting... :) )

Reply to
dpb

All true but EMT is harder to bend without kinking. I suspect that there was a change made in the Electric Code too. Something like minimum radius for 1/2 inch EMT that would be easy to violate with this Hickey.

I tried finding some at the time and all I came up with were for 1/2 inch ridged. Which would also work with 3/4 inch EMT in theory...

Good luck with the waiting. Getting anyone to call or email ME back nowadays is pretty rare...

Reply to
Leon Fisk

Original poster was:

Cydrome Leader

May 17

I was looking for a 1/2" EMC hickey for some tight, ugly bends, but don't see any in any catalogs. A few places still make rigid/IMC hickeys for 1/2 but are these compatible or they too loose, and will collapse thinwall?

See:

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$20AND$20bender$20AND$20after$3A2016$2F04$2F01$20AND$20before$3A2016$2F09$2F01/rec.crafts.metalworking/CPV5Wu8Nd5s

Reply to
Leon Fisk

On 10/25/2016 9:40 AM, Leon Fisk wrote: ...

Ah, yeah, I forgotted--it was the very tight bends OP was after was the prime problem...

Reply to
dpb

It was me. I was looking for the fabled 1/2" EMT hickey. You can still get rigid 1/2" and up hickeys.

Finally I found an old stock Ideal cast iron hickey made for 1/2 EMT. Let's just say it's more of a tubing collapser than bender, but if you crawl the hook along the bend you can get a much tighter radius than with a normal bender.

Reply to
Cydrome Leader

It's all fixed now, without a daisy chain of pull boxes.

Here's something else I came across, elsewhere. The colors are a bit off from adjusting the pic so you could see the secret outlet.

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My guess is something once plugged into that outlet and ran into the box below, and there may have been a cover in place. Still super weird.

Reply to
Cydrome Leader

They have ALWAYS been readilly available if you know anything at all about buying tools and electrical supplies. You won't find them at WallMart - - -

Reply to
clare

snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I sure didn't have any trouble finding mine, in a 'kit' with two of the most-common heads. And I got mine at Lowes. (HD, same-same).

Lloyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

I like it. Nice way to keep people from unplugging something that shouldn't be. Once you put the cover on no one would suspect it was there :)

Reply to
Leon Fisk

What I was thinking, too...and mounting the handy box inside the larger at 90 degrees does leave enough room for the plugs and the cover...looks to me like probably they had to either thread the cord through and reconnect at the business to use a molded, integral plug though??? Not enough conduit diameter to feed a plug thru, is there???

Reply to
dpb

The most-common being 1/2" and 3/4"?

I can find damnear anything, and for a great price, on either eBay.com or Amazon.com. The Home Depot (as stated), Homedepot.com, and Craigslist.com usually have local stuff, too.

Any electrical supply has hickeys, though, and those are in nearly every town in many countries. I'm surprised that so few people think of those when they shop for something potentially hard-to-find.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Yeah, my thoughts too that you would still have to wire in a plug/cable. A larger entryway would be better, big enough to fish a plug through.

Just something I hadn't seen before and probably wouldn't have thought up myself. Filed away in my head now in case one day it might be useful ;-)

Reply to
Leon Fisk

On 10/25/2016 11:25 PM, Larry Jaques wrote: ...

Well, I for one always think of them, but if there's _any_ alternative I'll go elsewhere as OTC pricing is simply exorbitant -- not just high but obscene. I needed a flex conduit 1" box termination and they charged me almost $20!!!! Could almost have driven the 60 mi to nearest HD for the difference excepting for the time...

Reply to
dpb

On 10/26/2016 7:16 AM, Leon Fisk wrote: ...

I'd not either, not sure I'd'a thunk of it also, but it surely made me think of my dad -- be something he'd come up with, likely! :) There are a lot of home-engineered solutions around the farmstead that are just duck-soup simple but effective similar to that one...but it wouldn't have surprised me to see something like that at several of the utility generation plants for an instrumentation installation that wasn't intended necessarily as permanent. Did a lot of one-of-a-kind tests over the years in the former consulting life where might need to take lab instrumentation to the boiler floor such that a temporary rigging similar to the above would be "the cat's meow"...

Reply to
dpb

That's kinda funny, my Dad was the same way. A lot of his solutions were far from elegant or pretty but got the job done...

Reply to
Leon Fisk

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