How I Began Making Acupuncture Needle Insertion Tubes

Gold, Silver, and Copper Insertion Tubes

 In 2006 I began the website; ACUTUBE.com specifically for the sale of gold and silver acupuncture insertion tubes (this website is no longer available).   It actually began earlier than that in my final year of acupuncture school at Pacific College; 2003, when my Japanese acupuncture teacher asked me to make him a gold tube.  I first wanted to buy manufactured tubing with a heavy wall thickness.  I could find companies that would make such tubing but they wanted orders of at least 20k dollars to make this special and unusual size.  I then attempted to make tubing by drilling both ends of some gold rod in special jig I made for my drill press.  This was a painstakingly slow process that was hardly accurate enough.  The greatest hazard was that these small drill bits were prone to binding and would often break inside the tube, wasting the precious gold.  I did come up with a couple tubes at that time but I never thought I would want to do it again.  A couple years later my father found an old Emco metal lathe at an auction and I became its lucky new owner. Although making tubes was now more accurate, the added power of the lathe was more prone to broken bits.  After making 20 tubes or so and learning many little tricks I had learned how to drill the bores for the tubes accurately, and without breakage!  Now, I could produce a heavier weight tube which felt more substantial and had gentle edges for a very comfortable needle insertion.