Protecting wires while pulling in conduit

mattmia2

I am pulling some #1 thhn through 1.5" emt and conduit bodies. I am finding when it makes the turn in the conduit bodies it gets stuck on the edge of the hole for the conduit connections inside of the body(one of the bodies is a tee and the #1 turns out the side of the tee. In hindsight I would have used a 2" conduit body and bushed it down. It is outdoors so I don't really want to use a pull box.). I found that I could put a piece of cardboard inside the conduit to let the wire slide over the edge of the opening sort of like a shoehorn. Is there a legitimate tool or method for this? The wire is too stiff to make it bend like that without some sort of tool. I see that greenlee makes essentially a plastic strip for larger conduit sizes.

ratio

You don't pull through conduit bodies, except maybe a C body. (Even then, you're r generally adding the C body because you're over on bends—so you shouldn't be pulling through it.) Pull a loop & then pull the loop out (one conductor at a time) once you're done.

Protip: if it's stamped with volume & you're under fill, you can make joints in a conduit body.

At least, that was Code the last time I read a code book. It may have changed since then, been a while.

mattmia2

I'm not pulling through them, it is hard to get the loop of wire to bend and slide in to the 2 conduits entering the body when it is #1 wire when i get most of it pulled out of the conduit body. It catches on the edge of the opening as you try to flatten the loop out. Putting a piece of cardboard over that edge helps it slide instead of digging in to the nylon. I'm not splicing 2 #1 wires in a 1.5" conduit body.

ratio

Ok, yeah, that's a problem. Cardboard is what we did back in the Noughties; that and beat it in with the butt of a hammer. THHN is surprisingly resilient.

Derheatmeister

Lots of lube ?

mattmia2

Lube wasn't helping because the edge of the opening was digging in to the insulation.\

although I was trying this stuff for the first time, I don't think it was the problem:

https://www.kleintools.com/catalog/wire-and-cable-pulling-lubricant/wire-pulling-foam-lubricant

pecmsg

someone has to direct it!

delcrossv

Cardboard or sacrificial tape on the edge , one pulling, one feeding. Backpull on the long way to finish.

Jamie Hall

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1849257#Comment_1849257

Pulling cable, in my not very humble opinion, through anything other than long sweep bends is not a very good idea… if there is unseen damage to the insulation you really have a problem. if you must go through turn in a box, though, two people are a must — one doing the pulling and one guiding the cable at all times.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Never tried cardboard. I have run into this problem many times.

One issue is conduit fill. You calculate the size of the conduit needed for the conductors installed and that is fine.

But if your near the maximum conduit fill you will find that the LBs and other conduit bodies are not rated for the maximum conduit fill.

For conduit bodies you have to follow what is stamped inside the LB for the maximum wires installed.

This is frequently less than what the conduit itself is rated for.

Some tricks:

Wire lube

Use a piece of plastic cut from an old milk container

Use a larger LB. I have frequently put bushings in a 2" LB to use it on 1 1/2" conduit

They also make "Mogul" LBs and conduit bodies which are very large and cost $$$$ and probably need to be ordered.

Use a pull box weather proof is available

Use a weatherproof section of wireway or gutter

When all else fails a bigger hammer or rubber mallett!!!!! not my recommendation but many do this.

Tees have to be avoided at all costs, same with the short pulling elbows if your anywhere conduit capacity.

mattmia2

i'm at about 30% fill right now. technically the branch could be 60% because it is under 2' chasing boxes together but I don't think that's what you meant :-)

I was going to look for something plastic but it was getting cold and dark and i had the box the wire came in right there. I think the piece of corrugated box has more structure than a piece of disposable thickness plastic container anyhow.

mattmia2

There's your problem:

mattmia2

I made it work. Pieces of plastic taco bell drink cup work well to protect the wire. If it were going 20 ft i would have had to use a 2" LT but since the branch was just chased in to a box it was possible to do it safely using plastic strips to protect the cable.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Offset nipples are tough as well

mattmia2

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1849417#Comment_1849417

Yeah, if i reworked it i would have just used a straight nipple and not worried about making it flush. if i did that i would have had to tweak the 3/4 emt too.