Which one of you did this conduit job in the hospital mechanical room?

Pulling wire trough a rack of parallel offsets like that is a total nightmare if the installer didn't use a **mandrel** or at least verify the internal diameter wasn't pinched during the process. You see it all the time in hospital builds where the spec calls for a neat and workmanlike manner and someone takes it as a personal challenge. It looks like a million bucks when the inspector walks through, but the service guys are going to be cursing his name for the next thirty years when they have to actualy pull a circuit through it. Most of the time, those perfect kicks are done with a hydraulic bender or a table bender where you can set your stops and pump out identical angles. If he did those by hand with a Chicago bender, he’s either a savant or he wasted forty hours of the contractor's time. I've been on both sides of it. There is a certain "f*ck yeah I built that" feeling when you step back and see twenty pipes tracking perfectly around a corner, but it doesn't mean it's the most efficient way to get juice from point A to point B. Tight spacing on the LBs is the real sin here. If you can't get a nut driver or a stubby screwdriver on the cover screws, you've failed the installation regardless of how pretty the bends are. I ussually try to stagger my conduit bodies or use **mogul LBs** if I know there’s going to be a heavy pull. A big trough would have been way faster and gave everyone more room to work, but some engineers explicitly forbid troughs in certain specs because they want dedicated raceways for every circuit to prevent heat buildup or interference.

It's definatly a labor-intensive way to show off. It’s basicly art at that point, but art usually doesn't involve pulling 500kcmil through it. If those offsets are too sharp, you’re just creating friction points that’ll strip the insulation right off the wire. Hopefully, he used plenty of lube and a power puller, or that beautiful run is just going to be an expensive ornament on the wall.

I’m just starting out as a helper and honestly, looking at stuff like that makes my head spin. How do you even keep track of wich pipe is which in a bank that big once they hit the other side of the wall? Do you guys label them with tape or somthing as you go? Also, I’m curious about those 'mogul' LBs—are they just bigger versions, or is there something special inside that helps the wire slide around the corner easier? I'd definitely hate to be the one struggling with a stubby screwdriver in a two-inch gap.

Usually we just Sharpie the pipe ends or use numbered wire markers. As for the 'art,' the real trick is accounting for the 'gain' on those bends. If you don't stagger your marks, the pipes on the outside of the turn end up shorter than the inside ones, and your LBs won't line up at the end. I’ve seen beautiful racks that were a nightmare because the guy forgot about clearance for the strut straps. If you have to use a flathead to pry straps into place because the pipes are too close, you’ve over-engineered it. Pretty doesn't pay the bills if it's unserviceable. It looks great til you're the guy trying to fit a socket on the hardware.