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I assume from your statement about too much horizontal motion using a pivot that you need to go straight up & down, with no sideways motion at all. A couple possibilities. First, can you use guide posts under the plates? If so, you can use a number of lever type schemes to multiply the length of cylinder travel, and a short linkage between the end of the lever and the piece moving vertical to take out any horizontal motion. If you can't or don't want to use guides, do a search on walking beam engines. There are a number of mechanical linkages that connect a horizontal beam on a pivot to a cylinder rod moving in a straight line up & down. There are also books that are a collection of mechanisms, and will have schemes for converting lever to linear motion. Finally, what about a diamond linkage arrangement like those used on car jacks, where a long screw pulls the ends of a diamond linkage together to raise the car. If the arms on each side are the same length, the top pivot would move straight up & down. I haven't tried to work out the geometry, but seems like you should be able to mechanically increase the length of travel by mounting the cylinder part way out on the diamond arms. Hope this provokes some ideas. Keith
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