Alright, I'm a cheap B**tard. I took a tote bag, riveted some plastic sheeting to the inside, and put hooks on in it to turn it into a pannier.

[edit to add] By the way, it works pretty good. That green stuff you see on the inside is epoxy putty. It keeps the hooks from moving around.

Pics:

just make sure you have something to keep it from hopping off on a bump. Otherwise, looks great

Thanks. I've been over many bumps with it and, so long as it's loaded heavily, it stays on without a restraint. I did make a rubber band out of a strip of an old tire tube for securing the bottom to the rack, but I haven't really needed it so far. It did come unsecured once, but I'm pretty sure I didn't have it totally secured in the first place.

Cool, I am wanting to do something like this too.

Looks great, maybe a spring with a hook on it to keep it attached when not weighted?

repurposing things is definitely +50000 in my book. the company that sells the repurposed clam buckets had a hook/spring combo if I remember right... damn if i can remember their website tho.

looks good!

My homemade panniers made from a daypack. This one is very robust. Lasted me more than a year of every-day commuting. You can get the hooks from a pack of framing corners at your local Ace Hardware. You might want to pick up an old FastSign cloroplast sheet to act as a stiffener for the inside of the bag. Beyond that, a few screws, a bungee and some zip-ties...

I found a fold-able igloo with metal frame for the pull wheels. For $6 of hardwares, hooks, clamps, and bungee cords. My igloo pannier (13h x 10w x 8d) is secured to the rear rack.
-G

All very cool.

Do you have a closer photo of the back of the pannier? What is a foldable igloo?

The tube will be very useful if you have to travel without anything in the pannier. It should keep it from popping off.

I will upload the pictures as soon as I can, but it is basically has the metal frame of a small rolling luggage with telescope handle. The igloo part is decent insulated silver foam material.
The foldable part is the plastic bottom piece is removable, so the whole thing colapsed/folded flat against the frame ( ~2 inch thick). The frame is 13"x10" and it fits perfectly with my rear rack. There are front legs and back wheels (mounted to bottom of the frame, which I saw them off) that are heavy duty rubber bars (1 inch wide).
I will try to get the pictures today.
-G

Nice work!

I second the idea of a hook to keep it attached when unloaded. I have a pair of 4gal buckets I rigged up as panniers using some J-hook rope cleats and a couple of bungee cords. Repurposed/Homebuilt bike stuff rules!

Wow, I didn't even notice this was still being posted on! I've had a chance to use it for a week now and it's doing great! I secure the bottom S-hook with my bicycle tube rubber-band whenever I fasten it now. After going over some larger bumps I decided it was safer to just have it secured rather than looking back on a regular basis to check on it.

Some really great ideas on here. Bravo everyone!

not cheap at all, i'll say good job, and very ingenuity

I've made myself a few accessories & bags, that i was unable to find to buy.
but it was more of a forced ingenuity, than being cheap about it

I'll save details for a separate topic.

I like that one! VERY nice!

Here are pictures of my Pannier/igloo.
All standard hardware parts.
The top connections are oval shape rings that open and close with a hex nut.
The clamps to the frame are water pipe clamp adjustable with a screw.
At the top are insulated P clamps from electric sections.
The bottoms are tied by bungee cords.

As you can see, the bottom plate of the igloo comes of and the thing folded.
You can see the telescopic handle in 1 of the pictures.
The frame, legs are riveted into storage. The storage is made of strong material to keep hot/cool.
I tie-wrapped pieces of tire tube to avoid metal to metal contact between the rack and hooks.

I just order these items from REI for $10 each.
They have the dimension that fit my laptop, and the pannier. I hope they work and I can load/unload my laptop/change clothes quickly.
Novara Laptop Pod Organizer
https://www.rei.com/product/780466
Novara Commuter Clean and Tidy Pod Pack
https://www.rei.com/product/78046

-G