By the way neither press had the springs originally. I added them to the smaller ones to make it easier for my wife to get stuff between the rollers by reducing the top weight. The big one, which has VERY heavy rollers, doesn't have them but it's still manageable. When you put the plate + paper + blanket on the platen you then have to get it between the rollers and as you can imagine it can get a bit hard to turn the handle.