Awl --
Luckily, I found a set of jaws I had made, for milling multiple 5/8'ish round rods on their ends -- facing, tapped holes, etc.
These jaws are not so easy to make, so I'm glad I found them, but it dawned on me how closely they resembled the rack part of a rack and pinion gear. If the rack could be fastened to a vise jaw, wouldn't it make a fantastic fixture for multiple small rounds?
The moveable jaw uses wood or something compressible to apply reasonably uniform pressure to all the pieces. The jaws ( for 6" Kurt, but about 8" wide) I have can hold about a dozen rounds. A rack could hold many more smaller pieces.
Proly more useful for the cnc-lathe-less peeple. I do many "lathe-ish" operations on a vmc, if I have the psychological wherewithall to make the fixture. In some cases, the right set up might rival a low-end cnc-lathe ito parts rate, but always at the price of a significant set up.