What is a good technique for making candy floss (cotton candy)?
It's been decades since I've done it, and it was with a full size professional machine (from a party rental store).  From what I remember:


Wait for it to accumulate on the sides
Reach in with a stick or a paper cone, down to the bottom of the spun sugar
Pull up while scraping the stick along the side of the machine.


There was spinning involved, too.  I want to say that you spun the stick after you had the candy clear of the machine, not while it was in the machine, but my memory of that part is a bit hazy.

Never put your hand into the machine.  I don't know if it was the hot sugar getting flung off, or some sort of a straw nozzle flailing about, but whatever it is, it hurts.  (that much I remember).

It's possible that the procedure is different for smaller, personal machines.  For one, they don't tend to have as much space to accumulate the floss to make a full cone in one pass.