To your questions from the rear, bear in mind that porosity is inversely proportional to mechanical strength. The size of your NaCl as well as the distribution has a role to play in mechanical strength.
With respect to the amount of solvent to leach your salt, I think it will depend largely on your scaffold size. But it's better you keep your scaffold in the solvent for some time and change the solvent at intervals to allow your salts to leach out.
Lastly, regarding NaCl settling, you can try to cenrtifuge briefly (for 5mins) after adding your material to allow it percolate through the salt and to achieve even distribution of the salt. This may also be a function of the viscosity of your sample:
So you can play with all the parameters and see if the problems are solved.