I have a question for you, slider users, seeing as my engineering sense is close to nil I need an explanation for even the simplest of stuff.

This is about how to mount a a slider on a tripod. Do you need :

A: Half a bowl on a tripod, attach the slider to it and then put the cam on another head

B: Have a flat head, the slider resides on the first half and the second half is put on the slider...then how would the slider attach itself to the lower half of the head

C: None of the above, it is another way

What is your setup?

Thanks!

the way i operate my slider if I need it mounted on a tripod is;
attach a plate underneath the slider, most have holes in them to do this, then slide the plate with the slider attached onto my tripod head, I have another head mounted on the top of the slider carriage to take the camera.

D) Both A & B can work, depending.

If you have a 1/2 bowl on your legs with a 3/8 bolt (which most have) and your slider is drilled 3/8, than you can put it right on the bowl and put the top of the head on the slider carriage (which most likely has 3/8)

Or you can run a head on your tripod, put the slider on it, and run another head on the slider.

Or you can put the slider on 2 light stands, head on slider, camera on head.

Or you can... well, you can pretty much do anything you like as long as it is stable and works for you.

Sorry for the late reply.

So what is you set up then? Meaning make and model of your tripod and/or head.

Thanks

The length of the slider is a big factor as is the weight of your camera rig. In my experience, attaching a slider to a tripod head is worse than attaching it directly to the cup of the legs using a half ball from Manfrotto. That's your best chance to keep the slider from slipping when you reach the end of the slide. A flat bottomed head on the slider carriage will help keep the center of gravity lower than a ball head and riser cup.

Bottom line is the fewer the moving joints the better. Try and design it with only one head and use that to attach to the camera. Depending on the weight of your head and camera, you may find you can only slide 8-14" off the center before experiencing slider movement. In that case a monopod or light stand will help stabilize the slider at one end. YMMV

on my Konova K3 slider (30"), I mount it to a Bogen/Manfrotto 501 video head using the standard mounting plat.

I only can do short slides, say 5-6" either direction from off center before potential movement.

So, I can gt about 12" total, which is actually just about right for what I need - 3-4 second shots.