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I live in western New York.

I'm using 1/2 inch conduit to protect 14/2 romex as it goes up my basement wall (before I run it unprotected along the basement ceiling to the panel).

My basement wall runs vertical for a ways, bends away from me/center of room at 65 degrees, goes 4 horizontal inches, reverts 65 degrees back to vertical, and then finishes with more vertical to the ceiling. Hence, when bending the offset, that first "wall" corner is going to be on the inner side of the first bend.

The way i see it, running conduit up the wall would be, effectively, the same as a 4 inch offset (the horizontal depth of the "inner wall" of the basement).

Here's a picture.

enter image description here

So far as i can tell from reading and YouTube explanations/demonstrations it is the case that bending a 65 degree offset isn't difficult. 65 degrees isn't a standard angle, but the trig calculations are pretty straightforward.

What I'm worried about is adhering to the corner as much as possible. Based on what I've seen of conduit bending, it is the case that the bend doesn't actually start at my mark. The conduit actually starts moving away from straight before the mark.

So if the 65 degree bend in the concrete wall is sharp and i want my conduit to have a 4 inch offset and stick as close to the wall as possible then where should i actually mark my bend in comparison to the corner?

THill3
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    Good description, but photos would definitely help further – ThreePhaseEel Jan 07 '24 at 19:34
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    Good luck running intact NM cable through a bend like that! IMO It will look better and it will certainly be a lot easier to pull if you don't hug the wall too closely at the hip, just do a couple of 45s. Or instead of conduit use some kind of plastic or thin metal channel that's meant to be run along the surface and and is easier to form. – jay613 Jan 07 '24 at 19:48
  • ThreePhaseEel- Thank you for being willing to look. I added a picture. I hope that helps clarify. jay613 - Thank you for commenting. 45 degrees might be easier to work with; I'm not making that claim either way. The question stands, though. If I want to keep the verticals as close to the wall as possible then where do I actually put my mark? In the videos I've seen it is the case that the difference-from-straight appears to start at a point that's actually to one side of the mark or the other. Is that accurate, or am I missing something? – THill3 Jan 07 '24 at 22:10
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    If it were me, I'd do some practice bends of conduit to get the spacing right. Do the bends at this unusual angle first and get that right with longer than needed conduit. Then once you have the bend right, you can cut the top/bottom of the conduit to the proper lengths needed. A lot easier this way than trying to get the bend exactly the right distance from the end of a conduit piece, especially if you're not an experienced pro at getting the bends exactly in the right spot. – Milwrdfan Jan 07 '24 at 23:00
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    Just to add a little more color to Milwrdfan's excellent advice: Make a pair of marks on the straight conduit with a known distance separating them, say 12 inches. Do your bends to the angle you like, then check how it fits the wall offset. Measure along the diagonal to see by how much your practice part is too large. Subtract that measurement from the 12 or whatever inches space you had on the practice part, and hopefully the offset in your second part will fit just right. – Greg Hill Jan 08 '24 at 03:17
  • Could you simply use wiremold raceway fastened to the concrete? – Huesmann Jan 08 '24 at 13:05
  • See this Q&A for info about pulling NM-B through conduit. Your 1/2" conduit might not be big enough. Even if it is, the pull won't be a lot of fun... – FreeMan Jan 08 '24 at 15:35

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