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A Good Question Considering Shipping Container Structures
This question came in to me by e-mail considering shipping container structures. It is from a graduate student that is doing research on the structural design and analysis of a shipping container building, and he is working on doing it by FEM (Finite Element Method). Finite Element Method design is a very good way to model complex structures and lends itself well to computer analysis. I’d like to share my answer with you all: ——– Original Message ——– Subject: Dry Cargo Shipping Container...
read moreBuilding Your Own Computer
Last week we realized we needed a new computer, and after a bit of debate, we ended up building our own. The old one wasn’t able to properly handle the 3d graphics we are going to, and the processor was outdated. We use some pretty calculation intensive software for the container design, and more and more we are designing in 3d. Also, my son in his undergraduate curriculum is studying computer programming and game design, so the stuff he is using pushes the limits of just about everything. The first idea was to upgrade the processor,...
read moreWho is the con artist we refer to as “He That Shall Go Unnamed” ?
In this blog there have been a couple of us going back and forth about a con artist who makes some outrageous claims about himself and his experience with container construction experience. Today I got an e-mail from a reader asking if it was a certain person. In the words of the US Government, I will answer “I can neither confirm or deny if that is the person”. Actually, the truth gets a bit more complicated. There are a number of people in this business that are con artists. The specifics of who it is are unimportant...
read moreNew 3d Design
This is a 3d Design of a very large house that we just completed. We did the structural design in Softplan and it automatically updated the 3d model as we progressed. The model is not architectural quality, but it allowed us to see where walls stacked, where they didn’t, where we needed beams, and how our joist orientation was working out. It also allowed us to confirm we had foundations below all load bearing...
read moreCraning 3Twenty Container Camp
This is a video taken of a unit we structurally designed for 3twenty Solutions in Saskatchewan, Canada for a container camp. It is being loaded onto a truck for hauling to the mining camp. Note the stiffening along the top rail – that allows us to put the openings in the container without it flexing. Our newer designs use a plate to stiffen the bottom rail so we can keep the container profile and ship them stacked if necessary. The design was done by assembling a virtual container in Bentley RAM Elements and subjecting it to the...
read moreGSU Observatory Building – Hard Labor Park
This was a rather simple project that we did the structural design on with Peachtree Architects. It is a small observatory building with a roof that opens. It was unusual in that we had to design it with the rails to allow the roof to open, and it had to be designed assuming someone would inadvertently leave it open during a thunder storm – the steel columns are sunk into the...
read moreHere’s a Challenge!
With the trouble Jodie Foster’s father is in for making unrealistic claims in container construction, I’m going to throw down the gauntlet to some of you guys out there on the Internet that claim container construction is a much cheaper way to build houses. Here’s the deal for the challenge: 1. Give me SPECIFIC EXAMPLES of houses you have built, and the cost data. I want pictures and locations. 2. Since there have been at least two people that have claimed to have built the container house in Atlanta that my company...
read moreBeware of Con Artists in Container Housing
I know there are a lot of con artists out there in the container housing business. Generally these guys are unlicensed people with little or no knowledge of construction that promise to build homes and other buildings from containers for an unrealistically low price. You need to read this article about Jodie Foster’s estranged father. It is the typical type of scam – the deal sounds too good to be true. Low cost housing with little effort using shipping containers. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. Please be...
read moreView From Atlanta Container House (video)
This is a video which shows the view from our container house in Atlanta. It’s a really awesome view of downtown Atlanta.
read moreShipping Container House, Connecticut Update
Here’s some pictures taken by the client for the shipping container house in New Haven, CT:
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