Okay so I have been asked by my father-in-law to engrave a 1.25" diameter aluminum cylinder, any and all advice would be appreciated.
A Yag laser engraver would do the job 
Carve the whole diameter, or just on one face? Vcarve desktop can allow for carves on a curved surface…
You’ll need special software or some real precise setup.
I think it will be just one face, I currently have Aspire 8.0 so don’t think the software will be an issue. Just curious if anyone has tried this or has experience with doing a project such as this. And would love to get a laser engraver also 
Someone carved some grips for a gun, can’t remember who, do a search on gun or grips and you should find the right guy to ask…
Aspire can handle this. One way to do this would be to import a 3d model the same dimensions as the aluminum tube you are going to engrave. Lay out the text and map it on to the 3D surface. Then just run the code for the text only.
The trickiest part would be lining up the work piece and zero point.
If it was me I would set the zero point to the center of the work area / object and practice on some wooden doweling to get things dialed in right. 
awesome recommendation on the model and the dowel rod, didn’t even think about that