I'm not sure if others have tried this before, but I was able to successfully remove a badge grommet to be re-used.
It's a pretty simple idea. Last night I was removing a Gretsch SSB#1 from my bass drum. I had removed the mounted tom and floor tom badge grommets by taking a precision flat blade screwdriver and prying up the grommet "ears", but one or two of them actually broke off, which made them useless to re-install.
As I was just getting ready to follow the same method for my bass drum badge, I noticed a piece of dowel rod on my workbench. It was about the same diameter as the grommet, so I carefully inserted it into the grommet hole from the inside of the shell. Then I carefully bent the "ears" up enough to use the dowel rod to push the grommet through the hole in the shell. I didn't brake off any of the ears. The dowel rod actually helped, because I didn't bend the grommet "ears" too much to the point of breaking any off.
We'll see if I am 100% successful when I attempt to re-install the grommet. I made one of the grommet installation tools (tapered head machine bolt, nylon washer, flat washer, nut). So if I take it slow, I should be able to re-used the original grommet.
Hope this helps someone.
- Tim