Designing a 'next level' rig to make rings... help!

There's a maker space/tool library opening up near me soon, so I wanted to design/make a rig to make my own rings, but I'm trying to puzzle through how to save a boatload of time in the process.

Essentially, I figure I'll start with a standard 'dowel and drill' method to wind wire and cut into rings, but after cutting, I'd like to be able to add some pressure and bulk close and/or open the rings while still on the dowel. Closing the rings feels easy enough; use something threaded with a slight wedge (probably on each end) to apply pressure to the rings and push them all closed at once. I'm thinking I'd need something like a PVC pipe to slide over the rings after they're cut to ensure pressure is only applied along a single axis and they don't push each other in crazy directions.

Trying to think through how to bulk open them seems much more difficult though... I'm sort of at a loss.

Has anyone ever tried to do this before? Anyone with more engineering know-how have any ideas how to make something like this work (for opening or closing)? I feel like the time savings in the long run make it WELL worth the effort, but also, it's just a fun project to puzzle through.