Fitting HD fork springs

[Rob65]

Has anyone got a clever method for compressing heavy duty forks springs to get the cap on? I've bought these German ones which are giving me a bit of a headache - see the pic below of the teetering pile I need to juggle and compress. My method has been to try to stop everthing popping out the side with the cardboard tube but I need another hand or three to line up the piston and cap once I'm close. The nephew is over later with the muscles but I just wondered if there was a better way.

Also, I've put the requisite 246ml of oil in but it is considerably below the 195mm recommended height. Which should I work to? I appreciate this is all avout compressing the remaining air but after all the wrestling with the fork springs I really don't want to have to strip them again to fiddle with oil levels if I can avoid it.

[fossie]

The workshop training manuals will say use air gap level as apposed to ml , as different weight oils and springs etc are not exact.