Just curious, I love to bend conduit, so I use it for making things with. Nothing real fancy, but useful wall brackets ect.. Even bent a pair of snowshoes out of it as a boy scout.
What really creative uses have you seen or put conduit to?
I’ve seen ATV racks, car top carriers, ect.
And, are there any web sites that have plans of things that can be built w/ conduit?
Just curious.
Join some of the most experienced and recognized building professionals for two days of presentations, panel discussions, networking, and more.
Dig into cutting-edge approaches and decades of proven solutions with total access to our experts and tradespeople.
Start Free Trial NowGet instant access to the latest developments in green building, research, and reports from the field.
Start Free Trial Now
Replies
I'm 6'5" so one of my favorite uses is to extend handles on lawn and garden tools such as my fertilizer spreader and a garden cart. You can't imagine the backaches I've avoided.
Another favorite use is to support shade tents for our annual garage sale. I used commercial elbows and ridge connectors. This brings up another subject: Where do you get the stock to make those things? They fall right in the middle of two sizes of conduit. I.E. 3/4" conduit has an OD of 0.922" and telescopes perfectly into the commercial fitting, whereas 1" conduit is 1.05" ID and fits very sloppily. I's like to make up some special fittings.
Creative? Well,I remember watching two travelers on a mill job long ago make a cannon out of a length of 6 inch ridgid conduit.They screwed a pipe cap onto one end,elevated the other,threw in a handful of nuts and bolts,and then used a burning outfit and the experimental method to determine how much acetylene to put in before igniting it.They were eventually shooting through the corrugated metal siding a hundred feet away.A complete disregard for everyone's personal safety,but it did sound pretty cool.When the engineers were making the punch list for the job,there must have been eight white hardhats standing there one afternoon looking at the siding.
I don't work those jobs anymore.It's gone so far the other way that if you stand on the fourth step of a six foot ladder,you'd literally better be tied off with a lanyard on your full body harness to the building steel, or the safety prick will write you up.Two times and you're fired.Part of the reason pick-up trucks cost thirty grand now.
For more than a few years i used to make conduit supported covers for covering boats in winter. (Always had the urge to wire one with lights since pulling the wire would be so easy.
I bent a small greenhouse using 3/4" EMT 5 years ago, it's still doing fine.
My latest works has been a 1 1/2" copper railing with the copper bent rather than using plumbing fittings.