Abstract: A pneumatic cleaner for textile machinery adapted to travel along the length of endwise-aligned machines in which yarn spindles have whirl-cleaner blades to strip the turns of yarn from the whirl. The cleaner has exhaust tubes having at least one exhaust port for blowing cleaning air into the machinery. One of the exhaust tubes has a retractable and extendible nozzle to direct the cleaning air against each whirl-cleaner blade and to displace said blade end into engagement with the whirl of each spindle as the cleaner passes the spindle. The nozzle is extended into close proximity to each whirl-cleaner blade by the flow of cleaning air and is retracted from said whirl-cleaner blade when flow of cleaning air is stopped. The flow of cleaning air is controlled with the travel of the cleaner, so that the nozzle is retracted to avoid interfering with other parts of the machinery when it is not needed to actuate the blades.