I have not removed grommets from shells before, but in your position here's what I would do:

Get needle nose pliers on the edge and slowly roll it into itself around the tip of the pliers. Do this several times and 'peel' the grommet walls from the shell.

If that doesn't work, I'd probably go to the hole size bit and drill the damn thing out. But, I have to imagine it can be peeled out. I have used this technique with other things of the sort with good results.

You are working in wood, so keep a close eye on progress.

I'd also suggest working on the outside because you will be covering that surface with wrap and the new badge/grommet which will cover any minor transgressions...:D

Thanks Jim. I did finally manage to get this grommet out but it did NOT end the way I kinda need the other three shells to go. :)

My understanding is that the XP-8s have smaller grommets than are currently available and thus it behooves me to preserve the old ones as best I can, or else I'll be drillin' shell (and Big R grommet-centered-print badge!) anyway. The only way to get this one out was to wreck it entirely.

The methods I started with are generally recommended methods for both getting the grommet-removal thing done and keeping things mostly together, complete with Youtube videos. This thing, on the other hand, was NOT coming out no way no how until I finally filed BOTH lips COMPLETELY off and pried out the inner wall with a screwdriver. Not cool, not cool at *all*.

At least I've confirmed that the Big R badge is a separate piece from the grommet, but this gives me serious pause before moving forward.

I did not realize you were trying to save the grommets... I assumed they were always replaced with appropriate replacements.

Well, I guess you could shop around and see if you can find correct size grommets?

jpcabinets just did a re-wrap of Big-R drums with real Koa veneer (Which look awesome by the way)... Maybe PM him and see what he has for info?

I had no trouble removing the groments from my xp8's, except for one. The easy ones, I just ground down the inside flange and drove them out with a socket and small hammer. For the stubborn one I ended up removing the wrap all the way around but leaving the badge. Then I could get a stiff putty knife under the wrap right up to the groment. Did this all the way around the groment until I could feel the knife touch the wall of the groment. Now I could pry the peice of wrap and groment out all at once. The wrap protected the edges of the groment. But it was stubborn and took patience. I have saved all of the groments and plan to re-use them, but with out those horrid badges.

Good luck!

> I just ground down the inside flange

+1 - Take it from someone who has removed dozens of grommets, if you want to save them for reuse, the method, Jeff suggested (filing off the flange) is the best way to go.

Best of luck with your project.

John

Sorry JC, I called you JP!Kiss

I thought you might be able to assist here...

JP ? JP Morgan? SOunds like a business tycoon, which Im not, thankfully.

No big deal, I didn't even notice.

lossfizzle, hows it going? What are you using for wrap? You have our interest now dont leave us hanging, lol.

It was weird how some of the grommets (Im not sure how to spell that word,LOL) almost fell out but the last one was a bear. The easy one wer drums with the big r no serial number badge. The difficult one was a concert tom with a RD before the number. If you do damage the grommets its not the end of the world, just get new ones and make the holes in the shell to match.

Jeff C

Jeff - Thanks so much for the valued input. I'd bumped into your kit on the forum on a couple previous Google searches, but I hadn't seen the finished koa "wrap." That kit looks fantastic! Great job and congrats!

This kit is actually entirely a "no-serial" Big R kit - well, that's my *current* assumption, because I've only "uncovered" two badges. See, this was a lacquered XP-8 kit that fell into abusive, presumably dumb-teenage hands at some point. They carelessly spray-painted the whole thing a horrible, drip-run'd flat black... lugs / hardware, badges, and all... put it on so heavy it even managed to leak onto the bearing edges in a couple cases, even though they obviously left the rims on too...

[IMG]http://lossfoundation.com/random2/beforedrums.png[/IMG]

The other thing they did (as I mentioned in a thread I started last summer, when I first got the kit) was to glue 5" wide strips of egg-crate foam around the inner bout of the two rack toms. I'm still kinda dealing with that, and I wonder if that is also related the problem I had with the grommet removal on this first tom I tried, actually.

I put this project on the back burner for a long time because I dreaded the paint-removal job on the hardware. I've finally finished up that task, and whatever they used was resistant to absolutely everything I tried except lacquer thinner... and even then, the paint fought me. It wasn't a pretty job.

I've long known the shells would be well beyond my own abilities / facilities in stripping / refinishing. There's no way I could get the paint off the shells and not destroy the lacquer underneath, and from all I've read, lacquered shells are a whole other ball of wax anyway when it comes to refinishing.

So I decided to go with a super-low-tech, cost-effective method of "wrapping" using sparkle-vinyl upholstery fabric (as detailed here). I finally cut the pistachio-colored "wrap" out this weekend and it looks like I should not even need to do anything beyond basic surface-level sanding on that terrible spray paint just to get glue to stick. Total cost for the materials was around $60 and although this is just about the opposite of the approach you took in terms of care / elbow grease / expense, I think it's gonna end up looking killer in a totally different way. :)

[IMG]http://lossfoundation.com/random2/wraploose2.png[/IMG]

Our ugly-looking weather forecast is going to keep me out of the off-site shop where I am keeping these things for a couple more days. I will report back if I have better luck with those freakin' grommets on the other three drums, but I also have some bearing-edge sanding to do too before I can start applying and trimming up the "wrap" in earnest.

I know it's not a big deal to re-drill grommet holes but I'm also a shell-drilling virgin, and I tend to get pretty neurotic about this kinda stuff the first time out. Also, I'd particularly like to avoid re-drilling the badges... although they are already in such bad shape that maybe I should just forget about them entirely. I'll keep trying the inner-lip file-off method that I started with, and hopefully it will work better on the next round.

Hopefully this will all start moving a little faster now that I have the hardware cleaned, because I can't WAIT to finally hear this kit! All I have right now besides this kit is a Taye GoKit, and while it's great for its tiny size, I really miss having a real rock-sized floor tom. Let's not even talk about all the dumb stuff I've had to do to make an 18x6" kick drum sound big enough on tape in my home recording projects...

Thanks again, Jeff. I really appreciate the help from a fellow XP-8 restorer.

Hey thanks for the update, its fun to watch these threads. I think the material you have choosen looks super! And Im with you, when you get shells that are so badly abused with paint, just cover em up and be done with it. Your going to end up with a killer drum set. I cant wait to hear mine either! As far as the badges go, I decided to place mine on the inside of the shell so they dont get lost and will always be there to identify the drums. Yours are going to be custom also so I wouldn't put them on.

Good luck and keep us up to date please.

Jeff C