Assembling the Calumet 540

[Ottrdaemmerung]

Hey, folks--
I just bought a spiffy Calumet 540, and I've been having difficulty sliding the standards onto the monorail to assemble the camera. The three knobs around the opening move the standard down the length of the rail and also allow the standard to rotate in place: as far as I'm aware, there's no control to make sliding the standard onto the rail easier.

I struggled and finally managed to the standards on, but since I know lots of people break their cameras down for travel and storage, I figured there must be a better way that I'm not discovering. Thanks in advance for any insight one of you could provide!

 

[John Koehrer]

If the bellows are removable, and the F&R standards can be rotated paralel to the rail, that could make it easier for you.
At least the camera would pack flat.

 

[Dan Fromm]

Second John's suggestion and add that the bellows come off easily. To ask the obvious stupid question, you did press the little stop in, didn't you?

 

[Ottrdaemmerung]

Um... what little stop?