A drum-shaped container (10; 11) for a laundry washing or drying machine comprises a cylindrical sheet metal envelope (12; 14) and gables (13; 15) also made from sheet metal and fastened to said cylindrical envelope, at least one of said gables being provided with a centrally disposed rotative shaft (16) for the container (10; 11) or with a support (17) for such rotative shaft (16). The sheet metal gable (13; 15) provided with the rotative shaft (16) or the shaft support (17) has a conical shape in the direction towards the in and the cone angle (2.alpha.) is chosen so that the stress acting on the sheet metal gable (13; 15) is mainly a compressive stress (.sigma..sub.H). Suitably, the cone angle is equal to or less than 150.degree., preferably in the range of 140.degree. to 150.degree..
