Barry Bauer’s photo project">Barry Bauer’s photo project

Tom Cerny is one of the many people who followed their parents into Federal-Mogul. In Tom’s case it was his dad, Charlie. Charlie is also in our Federal-Mogul photo album.

Tom worked in Tumble & Pack, a department that tumbles the bushings or washers in what’s called a media. For those unfamiliar with that terminology, it is a particular shaped stone, metal, or even crushed walnut shells. This process removes any burrs or sharp edges from the part. Then they are packaged in cardboard boxes or shipping containers provided by the customer.

Even this process has changed over the years because now some of this is done right at the press that stamp out these parts. It used to be one single department that still is called, “The Swamp.”

Tom retired on March 1, 2004.