For a better controlled process, build yourself a simple jig. Get 2 paint mixing sticks (for free from Home Depot), cut them to appropriate lengths (slightly longer than the length of your mast) and glue to each on one side a strip of medium grade sand paper. At one end of such stick glue short piece of wood (spacer) of same thickness as the top of your mast, and at the opposite end glue two other spacers as thick as the bottom diameter of your mast, leaving center hole empty. Glue both sticks