Pouring into tubes
Updated
The part that looks trivial and decides how the product looks on a shelf.
Rack them first
Tubes upright, wound fully down, in a tray or a purpose-made rack, on a surface you can move without carrying them.
A filling tray is a good small purchase in this craft. Tubes pour crooked and spill when they are free-standing, and moving fifty filled tubes one at a time is how tops get marked.
Wind down fully. A tube filled with the elevator part way up holds less than the label says and leaves the customer with a stick that cannot be wound out.
What you pour with
A vessel with a proper spout, or a filling tray with a pouring lip that fills a row at once.
A jug with a rolled edge drips down the outside and marks every tube it passes over. A pipette is accurate and far too slow for anything beyond samples.
Warm the vessel before starting so the first pour is not the cool one.
Fill height
Slightly proud of the rim, because it is going to sink. How proud depends on the formula and is found by pouring three and looking at them.
Overfilling badly is not free either: balm across the top of the tube fouls the cap and looks careless.
Keep the batch moving
Stir the pot between rows if there is any solid in the formula, and work at a steady pace rather than stopping to do something else.
The first and last tube of a run should be indistinguishable. If they are not, the pour took longer than the melt allowed and the batch size is wrong.