I didn't have the heart to dremel into the kettle and I wasn't 100% sold on the hose clamp idea so I started playing around a bit with what I had in the garage and came across a roll of
Stainless Steel Tie-Wire (the regular stuff rusts almost instantly). This is used for rebar or reinforcing steel in construction applications. It's very strong but is a thin gauge so it hides well as you will see below.
First I placed the kettle upside down and marked the ash-pan ring clips at
just slightly above the level of the leg sockets... the rest is pretty self explanatory:
Bend the tab to about 90 degrees... I overdid it a bit in this photo.
At this point I used a small file to make small notches on either side of the tab that the wire would sit in/catch on.
Using pliers twist the wire as tight as possible and then clip it off even and bent it over to avoid snagging anything.
All three complete...
Here is the wire around the leg socket - It actually almost tucks up underneath the lip where the socket meets the leg.
Reasonably clean! (sorry for the bad pics here...)
You can still remove the legs after install if needed and it easily holds the pan on there nice and solid. I managed to leave the old pinch clips for the ash pan on so each leg had to come off again.
Anyways, just another idea!