Ok im wanting to dive into the arrow making world, (my wife is just thrilled) LOL anyway. I have a small pen making lathe that has is variable speed will this work? or has anyone tried this. I think it will work fine just need to figure out how to get the nock taper to attacth to it.  thanks for any input, i have really enjoyed reading all the helpful threads here.

Lunatic,  Not sure if that lathe you have has a spindle or shaft where it meets the motor but I have a homemade crester that I made several years ago and it has about a 1/8 th inch shaft and I ordered a chuck from Kustom King this year that slips right on the shaft and your arrow just slides into this rubber gripper and holds it center...I believe you could crest without the nock glued on but I glue mine on first then crest...The chuck only cost around $8.00 or so...I am very happy with the chuck cause I had a chuck made by my Brother a Machinest and I had a rubber washer that slipped into a groove made into this chuck that held up pretty good but The washer kept giving me problems so I decided to try the one Kustom King has on thier website and It is great...It may work on yours too.P.m. me if you need more help..God Bless, Keefers <")))><

Grizzly mini lathe  

This is what i have. it uses the smaller of the tapered chucks (cant remember the size)

Ill look into the one you are talking about. thanks

See if you can find a 3 jaw chuck for your lathe. We use the same type lathe to turn reel seats for bamboo fly rods. We also turn the cane to fit the ferrels. We made a support for the cane from an old camera tripod.

Lunatic,  The chuck may not fit that lathe...I thought it was something smaller you had...

Got an idea. I have a few old pen mandrels that i bet would work. I can just cut them off with about 1/2" of the shaft left, I bet thats a very close fit with some surgical tubing to mate up the arrow and chuck