<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4134.100" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Levering with a pair of diagonal = cutters got me thinking and I grabbed my linesman pliers. By far the superior tool. You = can grab the pin by the cutting portion and lever off the nose of the pliers = but I found that you can grab the pin with the pliers straight up and = twist and pull straight up at the same time. 10 times the griping power of any = other pliers I tried. Even the worst rusted ones came out easy without = bringing chunks of wood with them. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>And yes, I do know that holes get = smaller as wood dries. Thanks for reminding me. Took me a long time to figure out why = those old plumbers didn't drill larger holes for the pipes.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Keith R</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>