Nick Hull wrote:

You don't have to have a collet, you can just grind out a 3-jaw chuck to
a good fit on 1.25" stock anmd you are only limited by the spindle hole.
Since you are making short pieces you might look at some 3-in-one
imports; you don't need the mill part but the rest might be the right
size for what you want.

Well I'm trying to build an automatic machine. With a collet setup
using air power to open an close the collet is straight forward. If
there are small air powered chucks available I'd like to hear about them.