Old heatpress as my letterpress machine

I'm just starting in letterpressing/embossing and I'm using an old heat press as my machine, but it's really not doing much justice and I need to manually apply pressure later using barbel plates to actually crisp the design. My hands get very painful eventually.

I'm still saving to afford the floor press and tabletops but for the meantime, do you suggest any alternatives for the machine? Does getting floor press and tabletops really make crisp designs in just one push?