Perhaps "waffled" is not the correct description.

Imagine a washer with a wave in it. Several "ups", several "downs" . A
bolt through such a washer, would be like the crankshaft in relation to
the "waffle-plate" or I suppose, swash plate. A lifter is to the cam
lobe in an engine, as the swashplate is to the slotted piston. However,
whereas the lifter rides on the cam lobe, in this case the swashplate
fits into a slot in the side of a cylinder  -- or piston as it were.
Envision if you would, some sort of swash plate stuck sideways nto a
piston ring groove As the swash plate slides in the piston groove, it
will tend to move the piston up and down.

Now envision a metal cylinder - actually a double ended piston, but
right in the middle - equidistant from both ends of the piston, a slot,
into which the swashplate fits. As this swashplate slides through that
slot, the double ended piston will move back and forth as it rides on
the lobes of the swashplate.

Now envision a row of these pistons arranged in a circle so that the
long axis of the cylinder is parallel to the crankshaft, and the
swashplate is perpendicular to the shaft and the cylinder/pistons, and
the swashplate is fitted into the slot in the side of each cylinder. The
motion of the swashplate through the slots will make all the pistons
move back and forth but parallel to the crankshaft.

To make an engine, applying fuel and spark to the ends of the cylinders
will instead drive the plate and thus rotate the crankshaft.

This shaft, piston, swashplate arrangement is found in many pumps.

Hope this helps.

John Rodgers
88 gL driver

THX0001@aol.com wrote:

>In a message dated 6/20/03 12:14:21 AM, j_rodgers@CHARTER.NET writes:
>
><< The plate was waffled up and down so that if
>the plate was in a slot, and the crank turned, the plate moved through
>the slot and the waffle made the slotted peice move back and forth . >>
>
>John,
>
>I'm trying my damnedest to visualize this mechanism.  Are you talking about
>some form of a swash plate linkage?
>
>George
>
>
>