I made my own rod dryer. I use hot melt adhesive to bond the rod to my make shift coned chuck. Use denatured alcohol to soften the hot melt and it peels right off.
Where I work we use hot melt to hold down all kinds of things while we machine it. You would be amazed how strong the hot melt holds things for fixturing.
Call me paranoid, but the last thing I want to happen is have my rod fall off my drying jig.
Of my rod end it too large I attaches a couple of stir sticks to the edge of my chuck and the butt cap of the rod - sort of like an outrigger. It looks funny, but it works.
A few pieces of masking take also works (when I am in too much of a hurry to wait for the glue gun to heat up......LOL).