Utility Cycling - trailer arm / towbar for home made trailer?

I'm working on building a trailer. The trailer is wooden and has a frame built around a pair of 28 inch roadster wheels. The trailer frame hangs an inch and a half or so below the wheel axles. I'm now working on attaching the trailer to the bike. I've bought a quick disconnect ball joint (QRI, 1/4, inch threaded joints):

http://www.midwestcontrol.com/buy.php?item=117
http://www.midwestcontrol.com/photos/large/168.jpg

and I think I can see how I'm going to attach that to the bike (bikes, really; I want to set this up for my 28inch 3 speed and my wife's 26 inch). The bit I'm not so sure about is the trailer arm. I'm looking at attaching a little below axle height on the left. The way burley or bikes-at-work trailers put their arms.

Most of the arms I see on line are metal and welded. I have access to many tools and a home depot, but no welding. I've seen one or two with wooden arms. Does this work well? If I were to use a prexisting metal piece of the right shape, what would this be sold as / as a part of? Something like the channel frame trailer towbar on this page:

http://www.bikesatwork.com/bike-trailer-parts/

but ideally spending a lot less than 65+shipping.

I used the top handle off of a Wyse Cart http://www.wysecarts.com (http://www.wysecarts.com/)
handtruck that I had access to and bent it outward a bit... it is just like the BAW drawbar now... my whole trailer is made out of 2 Wyse Carts and all I've done is bolting and cutting, still have to get and install the tires. This is a shot of the underside... I have reworked the drawbar attachment since then.

I'm afraid that anything I'm able to bend won't be strong enough. Or is that not good logic?

Hockey sticks are readily available, provide the right amount of bend and are very strong. Or some plywood jigsawed in a similar shape will do the same thing. If you really want strong, cut both plywood and a thin sheet of aluminum to match with epoxy in between.

:)ensen.

I'm afraid that anything I'm able to bend won't be strong enough. Or is that not good logic?

If you are referring to the fact that I said "I bent it"... you are aware there are things called "pipe benders" that can bend just about anything without reducing the strength of the material?? Or is that as unbelievable as a trailer being more viable than a trike to haul heavy loads consistently? Just sayin'.

If you are referring to the fact that I said "I bent it"... you are aware there are things called "pipe benders" that can bend just about anything without reducing the strength of the material?

You mean that you used something that was able to exert force far greater than what the trailer arm will see in practice in order to bend the pipe, right? But without a pipe bender I'm not going to be able to do that. So I think I either need to decide that it's ok to use wood, or figure out what metal object is already shaped the way I want.

Another way I used once was a U shaped pole to go on each side of the rear dropouts . and on the middle of the U have a simple latch or pole that a pine from trailer clicks into. it also looks neat lol