Are these Kort gauge pins overkill?

If you have an automatic feed platen like a Heidelberg, Craftsman, or Kluge, Korts and the like are the way to go. For a Kelsey or any hand fed press - especially if you’re using polymer and a metal base - you can make adhesive stops with 3M D-tape and mylar.

I second what Bill says (except for the Windmill) these are the best pins out there but with a base they must clear it or you risk smashing the pins and damaging the base.

Kort/Gardner and Megill Double-grip gauge pins are the two best ever made. When installed correctly, they hold without wax or glue but also allow for very minute adjustment during the run. However, the photopolymer world has very slight clearance between image and non-image; traditional furniture and slugs have enough free space to fit gauge pins and grippers but not Boxcar base.. Whether these will work for you really depends on your margins, because if your paper margin is less than your base margin, there will be a smash. This is such a recurring problem that compressible foam guages are now available and have been discussed on this list already.

I recently got a set of those gauge pins at auction. I use them on my Daughaday tabletop press. They are really fantastic, and I can’t see myself going back to any of the other gauge pins I have. They, and most gauge pins, do need some space to work, and with a press as small as yours, you may not find too many applications that will allow you to use them, but when you do go to a bigger press, I’m sure you’ll love them!

Be aware that both Kort/Gardner and Megill double-grip gauges can be used to the point they don’t hold anymore, so used gauges are suspect. The Megills have posts that will twist in the body if chronically over-tightened with the wrench. The Korts and Gardners have rivets that loosen the connection between lower plate and upper body, but they can sometimes be retightened by peening. The main difference I see between Korts and Gradners is the rivet, whether solid or tubular. The tube would require more careful peening.
What I like about the Megills is the single perpendicular slit which allows a longer adjustment. The Kort/Gardners have a limited adjustment before you need more slits, and if you’ve moved down or out then you have a parallel slit that can foul the edge of the sheet as you feed.,

I like the original Kort much better than the Adjustable Quad Guides sold by American Printing Equipment. They seem based on the same design, but are of an inferior quality and are difficult to use.

DGM

I like the double grip gauge pins because I can cut 3 or 4 slits in the tympan in various places and then, by using the right slits and sometimes by repositioning the job in the chase, I can use the same sheet of tympan many times.

I did get a set of newer double grip gauges which were probably foreign knock-offs, and they weren’t made correctly. I had to grind down the bottoms of the “front bumpers,” (if you will), to keep them from bending up the tympan when they were installed. I tried bending one to the correct profile, as I recall, but the steel was so brittle that it broke, so I lost one before I decided to grind the other two.

One of the few advantages of getting old (I’ll be 70 next month), is that you can get what you know will be a lifetime supply of certain things. Between the new knock-off double grips, and some I got on eBay that are in good shape, I know I have a lifetime supply of gauge pins. (P.S. I’m not buying any more 30 year shingles for the house either!)