Hi Brian, by default a non-planar curve will extrude in the z-axis direction.

For your text extrusion, probably that was the desired direction, but for your cylinder I would guess that your cylinder is vertical so you would rather extrude in the y-axis direction instead of z-axis.

To do this, push the "Set dir" button (as Edwin mentioned) that shows up when you are inside the Extrude command. This will allow you to pick 2 points, and the line between those 2 points will become the extrusion direction. So pick 2 points along the y axis in this case and your extrusion will go in the y-axis direction instead of the default z-axis direction.

- Michael