Tube filling salt funnel

thingiverse

Just a quick funnel to assist in filling tubes with salt to prevent crushing. I initially wanted it to rotate the salt in there, but it flow fine. When trouble is met, just mash the crank handle up and down a few times to clear up jams. To bend copper tubing into a coil shape, you'll need to crimp/solder one end then fill it with salt. When filling, tap the sides of the tube with something soft, I used a rubber handled needle nose. Make sure both ends are crimped and the tube is chock full of salt, otherwise the tubing may collapse during the bend. When the tube is bent to shape, cut one end with a tubing cutter and get the salt out using hot water. Pickling salt might work better for this due to not containing any anti-caking agents. The nipple end measures 7.5 mm wide. I'm using some soft L type 3/8" O.D. tubing for my project.