Does anyone know of a material that I could use to wipe clean an extruder while it is at temperature, not by hand I might add, I am trying to think of a way to wipe the heads just before they start printing to get rid of annoying filament tails that get dragged into the print area.
I wondered about chamois leather pads but thought it might burn at 230C, or soldering iron cleaning pads, but they are normally damp and I don’t think cooling the extruder is a great idea at that point.
I’ve used the head of a toothbrush with my old, ooze-y Budaschnozzle. The start gcode would run the nozzle through the bristles at a decent pace, which removed the leaked part and didn’t burn the (nylon) bristles.
A better way to solve this would be to prevent oozing in the first place, for example by parking your nozzle close to the bed’s surface while everything heats up (idea by @nop_head )
I actually extrude 2 to 4 mm of onto the print bed at the home corner with the nozzle stationary. It creates a blob that stays put and primes the nozzle. When the hot end travels it leaves the blob behind and prints clean immediately.
Like @Carlton_Dodd , I just use a tool - I have a pair of tweezers normally used for placing surface mount components on a PCB that I use to clear the ooze. However, I should say that having a bit of ooze at the beginning of the print can be useful if you can get it to stick, it starts out the skirt line.