A while ago I made pannier boxes for my enfield. I made them from 1mm sheet steel and they were very strong. I cut out a template in cardboard first to make sure they 'worked' then followed the template in steel. I folded the sheets by clamping the steel between two bits of angle iron along the part I wanted to fold, secured by g-clamps and then secured in a vice and pushing the steel over with my hands. I then finshed off the fold with VERY light taps with a rubber mallet. Work along the fold with light taps then start again at the beginning. If you try to fold one end right over while the other is only partially bent you'll stretch the steel making getting a flat fold very hard.
I then pop-riveted the whole thing together (dont forget to add flaps for this in your design!) as I reckoned this was far preferable to my rather ham fisted welding! Bathroom sealant in the joins made the boxes watertight. I then had the boxes powder coated. A keyed alike padlock on a standard case latch either end secured the lids. They were not quick release though, but bolted to standard after market frames using u-bolts. Total cost for the 2 boxes including powder coating, latches and locks was about £40.
You could easily do something similar with 'half-hard' aluminium, I'd suggest 2mm.
Matt
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