I guess if you are going to repot, the best way to 'grab' a cactus like this is with two big wads of news paper that you use as 'pads' between your hands and the plant. The spines will penetrate the paper but given their size they will not get harmed by that, nor will your hands if the wads of paper are big enough. In my experience that is just about the best way to lift the cacti that have outgrown tongs or other kind of grabbers, but are not so big they require pieces of thick old carpetting strapped around the cactus.
Ideally you do this with two persons. One with the wads of paper that holds and lifts the plant and the second person to pull the pot off, no flipping around needed that way.
As to water needs: I realize many of you who need to winter these inside want them to not grow that much, but while they are excellent low water use plants, they definitely will grow more when given plenty of water when it is warm/hot. I also suspect it helps to induce flowering, though these definitely need to reach a certain age/size before they will flower, unlike Ferocacti which tend to be a little easier to flower at relatively young age/small size.
