RGS Bends

[infinity]

You can do offsets and kicks with the 15° 30° and 45° prefab elbows. But you are limited to how small of a kick/offset you can do, and it can be a little tricky getting accurate measurements, but it's a thought I suppose.

Won't help much if you need a 6" offset on 3".

 

[NoahsArc]

On a side note my estimating program give 4 hours per 4" RGS bend. Seems very heavy.

My book (not worth much) says 2hr per stick total install (excl supports). I assume that incorporates average bends. Still seems excessive. It says 4" EMT is 1.4hrs per stick, which is very slow.
I've never bent 4" RMC, but it can't take much longer than 4" EMT or lesser RMC that I've bent a ton of, and with those I can do a 90 or a kick in at most maybe 5-10min, really never timed it. 4" RMC probably requires 2 guys the entire time, though, so double it.
It will go slow, heavy, and you don't want to make any mistakes so double-triple checking everything takes time, yes. Also swapping heads on the 881 and dialing it in takes time if you have multiple sizes. Had a job where every time I used the 881 I had to swap heads. Easily doubles the time.

I can't imagine having a job with significant big pipe runs and not having a big bender on hand.

I think that we pay about $25,000 for the portable 881 with a built-in cart.

Hot damn, those are pricey.

 

[infinity]

Hot damn, those are pricey

I agree but it's all relative. On a big project we might have 3, 4 or 5 of those benders.