A few years ago Bill Pohl, a good friend of mine and of mechanical
music, gave me for a Christmas present a set of calliope pipe cleaners
that he had made from the older pop-top soda (or beer) cans.
These were the pull tabs that actually pulled off the can. He
then bent these, put a black tape around the ring to fashion a finger
handle and bent the other end with a slight curve -- in different arcs
of the curve these would serve to clean the dust and junk in the slot.
I still have them and they still work great!
I can't find these types of cans anymore as they presented a problem
with people swallowing them. (I guess they would have 'clean pipes'
if they did, though -- he-he!)
Ron Bopp
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