John
  here's what your thinking of  the Dynacam engine..

Mike

At 01:22 AM 6/20/2003 -0500, John Rodgers wrote:
>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
>>
>>