Carpentry and Woodworking - New Hitachi M12V Plunge Router

I bought a new Hitachi M12V plunge router on ebay. Upon receipt, the housing was in the plunged position, fully depressed until it meets the base and will not move. Upon removing the sub-base, I could see pins that go through the plunge columns from the outside, which appear to be keeping the columns locked inside the base. There is nothing in the manual about this. Do you know how to remove these pins or otherwise unlock the plunge so the unit in the extended, "unplunged" position? The lock lever IS disengaged. Thanks for your help...I seem to be having one dilemma after another these days! :confused:

The columns are not locked by any pins to my knowledge. I'm not looking at mine now but I will tell you that if the lever is not locked, the base can be prevented from extending by a lock nut on the threaded rod. I lost the top nut when using mine in a router table and the lone nut will vibrate down preventing extension. The other problem could be sticky columns. If the colmns are sticky no amount of force will extend the base. You may have to remove the columns and lube them.

If this doesn't answer your question post back. I can pull mine out of the table and have a closer look. The controls on this router are a little clunky but it's a good router for the money. I wouldn't use it for non plunge hand operation however. After almost dropping it a couple of times I bought a smaller D handle for light duty hand operations and use the M12V for table or plunge work.

I used a rubber mallet and light tapped around the base, and it came free. It was sticky columns, and they do need to be lubed. Strange Hitachi would package them this way. Thanks for your help. :D