I believe you can set how the finder windows open.
1. Open one Finder window set it to column view.
2. Set how big you want it the window to be.
3. Close the window, and then open another one, it should open in column view and the size you set the window at.
Hope this helps, you might have already tried this.
I also think this is one of those FTFF things that we all talk about.
real