Kdal, looks like you covered just about all I would have to offer, spare a few.
"Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance"
Oh Yeah! I usually start a job (large job that is) by doing some thourough planning. I get myself a new box of mechanical pencils, and a zerox copy of of the RCP's for each floor. ~$20 at a office supply store darn well spent! (Lot cheaper than plan printing service) Large format copies of a few pages of the plans, just to pencil in conduit runs, cable runs too. Just draw them right in.... And plan for the future. (And extra conduit, or in the very least, room for one.)
Line Diagrams Right back on planning.... Try to hang more conduit that you have to bend. That goes with out saying, but have seen people layout runs where it seems every piece is manipulated in some way. The fewer bends you make, the easier the pull, and looks better too. Sometimes it is much more efficient to remove an obstical, than go around it. I recently went to a job to see a guy making 20 saddle bends past a single piece of existing 1/2" at different points on the cieling. (I got ticked off.) It was much more efficient to just remove it and incorporate it into the work, and would have looked better too.
As for the 'No-dog' - great tool, not totally nessesary... And I can rarely find mine. I learned other ways to get around that before I heard of that tool, and seeing that I usually have no idea where it is, I stick to this standard method.
Bender notches Make an issue of KO seals by issuing them only when needed with a snear and lecture. If there is a box of them laying around, people are less descriminate about finding uses for them, and not thinking before they knock out boxes.
And this one, is just my opinion... Sometimes pipe is a 2 man job. IMO it goes a lot quicker with one on couplings and doing the bends, and another on straps and boxes. (So long as more work than talk...) This way set coupling get tight without someone having to hop around from the strap, and back. Or, one guy measuring and installing, and the other bending and cutting. When doing racks I usually bend on the floor from called out measurements and just pass them up.
For 1/2" I have a 1/2 sized bender handle. A full bender handle is not nessesary for leverage in that size. Which can be very handy in some situations. I carry it in a hammer loop, bend in the air with it resting on my thiegh/knee, against the wall, or on the floor. It is just easier to handle, without the long handle...
