Urbn Timber convierte árboles recuperados en oro con un pequeño aserradero

Tyler Hillyard, Treg Sherman y Tyler Sirak son tres empresarios que han descubierto cómo convertir árboles urbanos rescatados en oro.

Well, not literally, but they’re the team behind Urbn Timber, a live edge wood products business in Columbus, Ohio.

De carpintero a propietario de un aserradero

The original business concept began with Hillyard. He became a woodworker after graduating from the University of Rio Grande in 2009, and he wanted to build furniture.

“It was a dream of mine to be able to salvage trees that had either been blown down or cut down to make room for new construction, and then build finished pieces out of it. Live edge furniture had gotten very popular and that’s what I wanted to make,” he says.

After buying lumber from other local woodworkers, he decided in 2012 to buy his own portable sawmill, a Wood-Mizer. He drove around the area with his father’s dump truck and mini excavator, gathering blown-down trees. With the Wood-Mizer, he sawed the logs into 4/4 (1-inch) lumber and kept making furniture.

Nearly four years later, Hillyard teamed up with Sherman and Sirak to form Urbn Timber. The company opened in January 2016, focusing on unique live edge boards cut on their Wood-Mizer sawmill.

Live edge, or natural edge, is a style of furniture that keeps the natural edge of the wood as part of the design, instead of the squared edges of dimensional lumber.

They started with just the Wood-Mizer, but a few months later added standard woodworking equipment such as jointers, a planer, a table saw, and a custom-made flattening jig.

“Ahora somos una empresa que produce desde el tronco hasta la mesa”, afirma Hillyard.

Obtención de troncos de arboristas locales

Compramos nuestros troncos directamente a los arboristas de Columbus. Provienen de fuentes sostenibles o se recuperan de árboles que crecen a menos de 15 kilómetros de nuestras instalaciones, así que cuando hay árboles caídos o hay que talarlos, los conseguimos. Almacenamos los troncos en nuestro patio de troncos y luego los serramos en tablas que secamos al aire.

The trio mainly builds custom solid wood surfaces such as dining tables, conference tables, kitchen countertops and islands from trees grown in Central Ohio, including cherry, ash, hickory, maple, oak, sycamore, and walnut. Occasionally, they work with other species, including Osage orange and locust.

All work is done in-house with no outsourcing of labor. They work in a 3,600-square-foot facility that includes a 1,200-square-foot metal shop.

“We have a metal worker running the metal shop. He makes metal bases to hold up the wood. We obviously do wood on wood construction, but a lot of our stuff is standing on metal. So if somebody comes to us, they can get both the woodwork and metal work done right here,” he says.

Sus clientes van desde propietarios de viviendas y negocios locales hasta carpinteros. Aunque actualmente se centran en el mercado local, han enviado madera y productos terminados a empresas y carpinteros de otros estados y de Canadá.

“Some customers buy a raw slab and take it home to work on their own or they buy a finished item from us. If they don’t have the machines to deal with it on their own, we can process it and make cuts and they can go home and finish it,” says Hillyard.

Los riesgos del aserrado de troncos recuperados

Like any mill, Urbn Timber has its challenges. Sometimes they get logs with nails or lag bolts left from swings and the like, so there’s a risk every time they open up a log.

“Por eso es grande empresas de aserraderos "No los quiero. Siempre existe la posibilidad de que corten la ferretería, y a ninguna sierra le gusta el metal", dice Hillyard.

Las cadenas de nuestros molinos cuestan $100 cada una, así que si entramos en contacto con metal, se destroza casi siempre. Y hemos destrozado muchas cuchillas por ello.

Secado al aire y control del contenido de humedad

When logs arrive at their facility, they’re cut into slabs and air-dried for 6 to 18 months, depending on species and size. After air drying, Hillyard and his partners take a moisture reading of each board.

“We put Wagner’s MMC220* moisture meter on the board and draw an outline around it with a marker. Then we’ll write the moisture content (MC) of that area on the board and the date right beside it. So we have a little legend on that slab as it goes through the drying process,” he says.

Nos encanta que el medidor Wagner no tenga clavijas y sea muy preciso. Una vez usamos un Delmhorst con un martillo deslizante y clavijas de 3 cm. Seguíamos rompiendo las clavijas del tablero. Además, es desalentador ver un hermoso tablero que estás a punto de convertir en mesa y ver dos agujeros gigantes en el centro donde tenías que comprobar la humedad.

“Cuando empezamos a buscar un medidor sin pines, vimos que otros en la industria usaban el medidor Wagner. Eso le dio credibilidad”, añade.

*The MMC220 has since been replaced by Wagner’s Orión^® Línea de medidores de humedad sin pines.

Hillyard dice que está sorprendido por la cantidad de carpinteros que no tienen un medidor de humedad.

“It always blows my mind. When you’re working with wood, wood moves. The only way you’re going to ensure your project is staying flat and square is by knowing the MC of your wood. Not having a moisture meter is like cooking without a thermometer on your oven,” he says.

Secado en horno y comprobación final de la humedad.

Once air-dried, the slabs go into a dehumidification kiln for 10 to 12 weeks. This lowers the MC to between 6% and 10%.

“Solo secamos unos 3,000 pies tablares cada tres meses. Y durante ese tiempo, monitoreamos el contenido de humedad aproximadamente cada dos semanas con el medidor de humedad. También revisamos la temperatura y la humedad del horno cada tres días para asegurarnos de que se ajusten a nuestro programa”, dice Hillyard.

Para nosotros es fundamental controlar la velocidad de secado del material. No queremos que se seque demasiado rápido y que se produzcan más grietas de las necesarias. Pero tampoco queremos que se seque demasiado lento porque tenemos que generar ingresos», añade.

After kiln drying, the wood has to be checked for MC again. Ohio is humid in summer and dry in winter, so the wood is always either swelling or shrinking.

“Observamos que la madera terminada, incluso una pieza secada al horno, se expande y contrae en su ancho en su mayor parte”, afirma.

Since Urbn Timber doesn’t have a climate-controlled shop, the humidity inside fluctuates with the outdoor humidity. To ensure their wood is equalized with the environment before working on it, they continue to monitor its MC. And while they shoot for 6% to 8% MC, Hillyard says the wood normally equalizes at about 10%.

Cómo hacer crecer el negocio a través de las redes sociales

Besides its live edge products, there’s another reason for Urbn Timber’s success: social media. By posting daily, the team has turned Facebook and Instagram posts and likes into sales.

Las redes sociales han sido una excelente manera de expandir nuestro negocio y mantener el contacto con nuestros clientes. Por ejemplo, a muchos les encanta ver cómo se construye su producto. Mientras lo construimos, también compartimos el proceso con ellos a través de las redes sociales. Les entusiasma y les hace sentir parte de la construcción, afirma Hillyard.

A través de las redes sociales, la empresa se dirige a un público local amplio. Y publicar anuncios en Facebook e Instagram no les cuesta mucho dinero.

“We just spend some time every morning making sure we have a post out there, reminding people what we’re doing and that we’re still around,” he says.

With quality live edge products, three dedicated partners, and a steady social media presence, Urbn Timber has built a business that, at the time of this 2018 article, was set up to be around for a long time.

Compre medidores de humedad Orion

Última actualización el 9 de octubre de 2026