[Danderdude]

Howdy yall, first time poster, long time reader.

I'm about to come into a pair of used routers and have quite a pile of old barnwood ranging from 1x3 lats to 6x10 beams and everything in between. The barn was over 80 years old, and most of the wood showed signs being reused when they built it. More than a few old square-cut nails were found embedded in it.

With all the nails pulled now, I started planing and found beautiful, dark, still sappy tight-grained Texas pine underneath the rough, rotten gray exterior, and this was only taking 1/16th off. All boards are also true dimensions: a 2x4 is a true 2 inches by 4 inches.

After cutting out the truly rotten parts, I've got a very large amount of 2x_ lumber in lengths from 2 to 20 feet. What I'd like to do is find a way to tongue-and-groove this 1 7/8 lumber into sturdy shelving, mancave flooring and tabletop in a patchwork fashion.

The problem I've run into is finding router bits that can handle 2 inch stock in one pass. Is this the wrong tool for the job? Are there any other options out there? Is there a good way of joining lapped lumber without fasteners left visible? Who can/would/does make a router bit like this?

 

[Danderdude]

I should clarify, finding a way to cut, say, a 1/2 in deep 3/4 tall female side would be rather easy. How does one go about making the matching male?

 

[Danderdude]

If you are willing to make two passes

The wood isn't going to be all the exact same thickness, though. We're talking turn-of-the-20th century sawmill technology. Cutting a dado groove centered would mean microadjusting the fence for each piece. Ideally I'd like to plane the thin edges first, cut the tongues and grooves, glue it into a giant sheet and then plane the whole thing as one piece. This ought to cancel out the slight variances.