Alan,
No offense intended, but I need to point out that the first method runs 1. Calculator while the second method runs 1. Calculator 2. PointDataToCellData 3. Warp - just referencing Occam’s Razor!
P.S., here I have a Coordinates plugin that is my most popular creation and it creates all the undeformed cylindrical stuff with a click, so my users get drilled to use that filter, which leads to the first method above.
Your mileage may vary!
Dennis