Just put the upper mount in the vise, turn the vise so the jaws are horizontal and unscrew the nut on the damper shaft. Make it a game. Get a couple other players and see who can shoot their dampers the farthest. Get a front one if you can, it will go further.
And not that my last statement wasn't totally serious, but using a spring compressors takes all the fun out of it. Just don't aim the damper or upper mount at your face or the face of someone you like. The rears aren't preloaded very much, but the fronts are and the parts of the damper will go flying apart.
Spring compressors are cheap and you can even rent them. Harbor freight sells one for cheap and should last through at least one set of springs. Or you can rent them from some auto places for free/not that much.
And it's not that much work to swap springs on to stock shocks and then on to good shocks later on. But if you're shocks are blown, it's not even worth putting the springs on. Or just get new shocks and do it all at once, it will make things easier and better.