I recently bought a nice 2 x 3 Century and I REALLY like it (it's quite elegant compared to my clunky old 3 x 4 Speed). There's only one thing I can't figur out how to fix / adjust:

The front standard is loose on the focusing rails, resulting in a "swing" action (when the lock is loosened to pull the lens out, the front standard can wiggle to about 3 degress off parallel with the film plane).

I hope I'm describing this right - it's hard to do without a picture with arrows.

Is there an adjustment to tighten the front standard's "grip" on the rails, or should I bend the outer guides in with a pair of pliers?

Thanks in advance.
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volcano review

What you're describing may be within "normal" limits for the Century. Mine also has some wiggle in the front standard. Of course, if your infinity stops are lined up accurately this won't be a problem, but when changing focal lengths (unless you've installed another set of stops) the out-of-alignment problem will crop up. I took the simple (and cheap!) expedient of locating the infinity focus points for my 65 Optar with a fine point marking pen right on the rails, carefully measuring for equidistance from the rail ends. For my 203 Optar the ends of the rails themselves are close enough to infinity focus that you can set the standard there, rack the bed out a tad, and be right on.

I'm not aware that there is an adjustment for your problem; maybe somebody out there knows of a good fix. I myself would hesitate to bugger up the rails because if it turns out for some reason you don't like it, you'll never get them back the way they were and you'll have created a new problem into the bargain.

Judging from the pictures I can find, the standard should be essentially the same as my crown graphic. The standard is going to wobble a bit as you slide it forward and backward. Once it's clamped, it shouldn't move at all, and there is a way to tighten that by the screw and nut under the center of the clamp.

Brett