I hate the compressor too Don, I saw a spring get loose on a boy and it hit him in the forehead,he cut a 1 1/2 gainer before he hit the floor face down and when we rolled him over he had an instant goose-egg right in the middle of his forehead. He was in the hospital for 3 days, and never did come back to work.
They have a nice pneumatic one from snap-on if you got the money to justify it. I try to load front springs last so I can drop the lower control arm and use the complete front weight to hold it down.
My valve spring compressor is pnuematic, and I drilled the fork end on it and added another bolt & lock nut to it.