Drilled a hole in the kettle

krex1010 said:

Aren't most of those conduit fittings made of galvanized steel? (I may be wrong) I get wanting to keep the probe wires out of the way but I'd avoid anything galvanized in a cooker. I know it's not much galvanized but you might be able to make some regular steel fittings work.

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griller27 said:

Porcelain coating was fine. I used painters tape to cover the spot I was drilling on. Started very small with the drill bits and slowly worked my way up. Everything went great!

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1. Don't worry about the zinc.
2. You have damaged the porcelain by exposing the edges of the steel as you cut the hole. No way around that. I suggest taking the fitting off and re-installing with some of the red hi-temp gasket goo. Use lacquer thinner or other aggressive solvent to degrease the area first. Try to make sure that the goo completely protects the exposed steel edge after you reinstall the fitting. If rust starts there, it will crawl under the porcelain. That's why you sometimes see big rusty splotches on Webers. They start with a pinhole or some other compromise of the porcelain.