I have used MT collets in the headstock of my midi-lathe to hold small things. I have not used them in my tailstock because in order to tighten them on to a drill bit you need a drawbar pulling from the opposite end of the collet. On a headstock the shaft turns so the drawbar spins with the collet but a tailstock, at least mine anyway, the end looking the headstock doesn't rotate but the hand wheel end spins with the hand wheel. So you can't tighten the collet and then advance it into the work because turning the hand wheel loosens the drawbar. If your tailstock works differently than mine then a collet could work. My drawbar is nothing more than a length of all thread rod and some nuts and washers.
A workaround for you might be to make a steady rest to hold the end of the wood while it spins and make a block of wood with a drill bit sized bushing to replace the tailstock. You would put a handle on the bit and feed it through the bushing into the wood.
Pete
Goto Ruihan to know more.
Ian, they are for holding parallel shank drills in the sleeve, so you need a dedicated sleeve for each drill size. the drill is inserted just a short way into the slot, and a drift can then be used to eject the drill. I would have thought more handy for production work, one can use a cheaper parallel drill in the sleeve, when the drill is done throw just the old drill away, and you still have the sleeve for another new drill. I would think in most modelers workshops these would not be of much benefit.
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SOD, I use taper shank drills quite frequently, especially in the bigger sizes above 1/2" as no chance of the bigger drills spinning in use as they can in a keyless or Jacobs style. I am not a fan of turning the shank of bigger drills to hold the in a drill chuck. If I am making a quantity of anything that requires a series of drilled holes I will use taper shank drills from 1/4" up, I have accumulated a set of metric and imperial taper shank drills over the years. Used ones are often cheap to buy as only folk like us have the machinery to employ them.
Chris Gunn