Building a shed from air freight containers

[eyesoreracing]

Cool idea with the pulleys.

My opinion: Drop the door down to the bottom of the opening and cover the upper part of the opening with a piece of plywood (or something). It's a pain to step over something all of the time. Or you could take some leftover steel and make the doors larger.

I decided to put the door at the top and add some plywood/something to the bottom of the door (basically your same idea, but on the bottom). The reason is simple. The U-channel holding the supercharger pulleys is very easy to twist. Making them long enough to hang the door lower might make them roll poorly, as any imperfections in the rail or pulleys will apply torque to those beams.

 

[454ragtop]

Maybe a flip down ramp at the bottom of the door? As far as anchoring, sounds like it's going to have plenty of ballast in it pretty soon.
Good luck, Jim

 

[sam03]

very cool idea

 

[terry603]

i like it.
when youmove it next time,put the holes of the blockes pointing up,much less chance of splitting that way

 

[eyesoreracing]

Finally almost have a door on this sucker!

I've salvaged the containers themselves and the giant 2x10 holding up the roof (which actually appears to be 11" tall. Does that make it a 2x12?) I've added this bucket of lag bolts to the salvage list:

I then bought 11 of these pipe fittings, at $0.80 ea:

and couldn't find anywhere to salvage a 10' long steel bar, so I had to break down and pay for new stuff to finish this rail:

It may look like I built the door in preparation for a flood, but at least its starting to look like a door:

Rolls with 1 finger!

 

[Zeke]

That whole thing looks surprisingly cool.

Yep, Krud Cutter is phosphoric acid.

 

[fordbroncodave]

i think there is money to be made here. put together pieces for a shed and sell it

 

[ietech]

Better as is with the slope away from the door

You could add an inexpensive gutter to the back and protect the house.

 

[eyesoreracing]

Not quite done, but I finally got far enough along to move stuff into the shed.

First trick was to make the shed lock. The door/container floor has this lip on it that was originally designed to hold the sides on.

I installed this U-channel to trap the lip when the door is closed:

like this:

Ironically, making the door park this well required me to hang the door slightly crooked. I guess my containers aren't stacked perfectly square.

With the door trapped in the channel, I could secure it with this deadbolt, salvaged from the back door of my house.

Finally, I get to load it!

Years of cheap living have given me plenty of leftover IKEA shelving. It was some crazy 3D Tetris to fit them in here, but I think I finally found the most efficient way to pack this thing.

Found an old broomstick in the backyard to make this ladder mount too:

If you're really determined, you can still crawl under the door to seal all my junk, but I should have that gap closed up in a couple of days.

 

[Lippyp]

I still think first big storm and that roof is gonna lift right off. Even in California the wind blows sometimes doesn't it?

 

[eyesoreracing]

I suspect you may be right. Any recommendations on making it more secure?

 

[AZ Pete]

pretty clever! Good recycling too.

 

[libom]

to tie down the entire frame you could use some mobile home tie downs. (corkscrew anchors) Here they can be bought at Lowes along with everything to go with them. Nice Job

Wind here is infrequent (sometimes only once a year) so we tend to ignore the possibility and then get surprised when all our stuff blows away. I have put a hell of a wing on the top of this thing, but luckily it's poorly attached and will just blow into my neighbor's yard when the wind kicks up.

Maybe a couple of those corkscrew anchors are in order. I've seen them before, but don't know what they're supposed to be used for, so I don't know where I should look...

 

[VWPORSCHEGT3]

wind doesnt really blow in long beach.... try Palmdale... if the wind aint blowing there its the apocalypse....

 

[Lippyp]

I used some steel strapping to secure the purlins on my recently saved barn roof to the trusses, this is thinnish perforated steel strip sold as a roll. Make sure the roof is securely strapped to the sides of the shed. As to anchoring the whole thing down, fill it with lots of heavy stuff!

 

[KnightFire]

Maybe a couple of those corkscrew anchors are in order. I've seen them before, but don't know what they're supposed to be used for, so I don't know where I should look...

\

I'm really digging the ingenuity in this build!

This might help in your stake search (they can usually be found in the pet aisle in your favorite big box store) I use them to hold the tarps down covering my stacks of wood and we get crazy high winds, these work perfectly:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UGIQ0K/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[jfish]

Hey, eyesoreracing, of all the places to randomly see THAT Silvia pop up! Made me do a double take I remember the build in SCC, I used to love you guys.

The shed is great btw, the Jackson Racing pulleys are the best touch.

 

[eyesoreracing]

Its funny how many people still recognize that tired old beast. I'm actually building a new engine for it now. Check MotoIQ.com for updates if you still want to love it. There is a projects tab at the top of the page that drops down all the project cars. Some post-SCC Silvia updates are in there.

-Dave

 

[cgall]

This thread starts out like something from the Red Green show, but I must admit that your finished product is quite remarkable. If you paint that metal with any kind of oil-based primer, you can slap latex house paint over that and it will last for years.

 

[eyesoreracing]

If you're really determined, you can still crawl under the door to seal all my junk, but I should have that gap closed up in a couple of days.

So that was 5 weeks ago, but I finally did finish the door (amazing how shed building motivation drops off once the shed is functionally holding ****).

The black bits are painted with truck bed liner (from a spray can), which makes the stuff you actually touch nice and durable.

 

[fergus]

Nice shed dude!

 

[sublime68charger]

nice looking scrap shack you have there.

its nice to make something useful and not have it cost a arm and leg to get it built

 

[Parrothead]

I want to know about the car in the picture. It looks like one that was in Sport Compact Car years ago. Possibility? Just wondering