Router Table Tool

A few years ago I bought a Router table top from Rockler along with a lift to hold the router. The lift has Rockler's name on it but the crank says Jessem so I assume the whole set is made by Jessem and branded for Rockler.  the lift has a collet that fills the hole around the router bit with two holes to facilitate removal. Included with the lift was a little lucite Y shaped tool with two metal pins that fit the holes in the collet. I may have used the router table once or twice in the first two or three years I owned it so I was pretty disappointed when I went to use it last year and the tool had self destructed. I wanted to use the router yesterday and was looking at the collar when it struck me that the holes looked to be about the same size as  metal shelf support pins. I tried one in the hole and it was a perfect fit. All I had to do was screw two pins to a scrap of wood and I had a new tool to remove the collet. It actually works better than the one that came with the lift and the price was right.

Broken Rockler tool.

My home made tool