I’ve seen some of these polished/sanded/stripped/whatever FW3A’s and to get the look right it seems I need to be able to secure this to a drill and use some light sanding pads after stripping some of the ano.
So, looking for advice on how to secure an FW3A to my hand held drill. If it’s something a bit adjustable/reusable and costs a moderate amount of money that’s fine or if it’s something cheap that would work as a one time rig that is fine too.
You’ll want to use a lathe or at very least a drill press, a hand drill would be way too unsafe.
A piece of plastic or wood installed where the optics and MPCB usually go would probably be easy enough to hold in place with the bezel and add a shaft to, but you would want to keep speeds extremely low and it would probably bend at the tail. You could also pass a threaded rod through the entire light, tighten with some large washers at each end, and toss that in the drill press - but really, you want a lathe.
Sounded to me at first that you wanted a Picadilly rail for it, to see what you’re drilling really brightly. 
Consider mild sandblasting or “stonewashing” instead? Especially a softer metal like Al, I’d think anything less than polishing grit would leave it looking ringy, no?
Anyway, a wooden bracket, one free-spinning rubber-lined pad on one end, similar pad on the opposite end but with a shaft coming out through the bracket to let the drill grab hold of, might be a way to go. Pressure from the drill would keep it in-place, releasing would let the light drop free.
Know those pads that go on furniture, that you can screw up/down to adjust the height? Something like that, maybe, only again, rubber-lined to keep it from scratching the finish and for better grip.
Ah, here, at Home Despot:
only strip the threads to is free-spins vs screwing up/down, of course.
Then you just need the frame, like ¾ of a rather sturdy picture-frame.
Have you not got a headlamp? That would be easier ,
Some cordless drills come with a little light built in that works well , but a headlamp would be much better.
Lol , 
I misread ,I thought you were trying to tape a torch to your drill 
Elbow grease might be one option.
Others might have a more readily useable idea (CRX 
)but my thoughts are -
- get a long enough bolt (long enough meaning longer than the light)
- wrap it in masking tape until it fits snuggly inside the tube and cut the tape (but not the bolt) square at the end just a bit longer than the light tube
In all honesty , I know I’ve tried something like that in the past but it was a long time ago and I don’t really remember how successful it was.
I’m not reshaping bar stock here, it doesn’t need to be really sturdy and my drills are variable speed. Just need it to spin so the finishing pad rubs evenly.
I think one option I saw looked like just a dowel rod wrapped in tape. I guess you would just put a hex screw in the bottom of it so the drill could hold on better?
I found a fancier option on youtube where someone took a cheapo mini lathe chuck and threaded a bolt in the bottom of it but I dont think I want to buy a tap and chuck just for that.