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Hi Mike,
welcome to the world of newts on GEMs, frustrating is a word that springs to mind. Most of your questions relate directly to the EQ6, and I have no idea what to suggest.
A couple of thoughts though. The "rings" look like decent half rings, and I wonder about getting a strap (stainless or similar) made that afixes better, rather than what appears to be fabric type webbing. I am sure I have seen commercial rings like this, half shell, and spring strap over the top, hinged on one side, and turn-buckled on the other.
No idea why the drift occured has me, but the facts speak for themselves.
You "aligned" the tripod I presume first, as this is what you say, and then fitted the head proper. I would tend to align the head only, and do this with the azimuth in the centre area, so as to allow adjustment east and west. Leveling the tripod top I would do without the head though. All this is foreign to me as I leave my base set up. Maybe when you used the compass you had it near ferous metal from the top of the tripod, and this affected the reading?? Try it in daulight, sit the tripod up, walk the compass to it, and see if the reading changes. Now you will understand why I have to do a "compass swing" every now and then, it is called deviation.
If the dec needed adjustment, and assuming Saturn was near the meridian, then the azimuth was at fault. If the object drifts north, then the mount is facing too far east, etc. This info is actually written in K3 help too, if you forget it. Maybe try again, during daylight, and see what gives.
Lastly. If I was looking to use that setup for a length of time, I would be getting someone to fabricate a very short stubby pier, about 100mm longer than the length need to clear the bottom of the tube at the zenith. My 10" uses a pier (in-built) that is about 600mm tall, and that is more than enough. If the pier is not permenant, make one like my roling pier, I can send a few pictures if it helps. That way all can be left on the pier, mount, batteries etc, and simply wheeled out, with another trip to fetch the OTA.
Gary
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