Curious, other than blasting parts prior to rust bluing, what other things, not necessarily gun related, could a eprson with a blast cabinet do to make it pay for itself?

Red

Sandblasting small metal parts! Seriously, anything you can fit in the blast cabinet that needs the surface prepped or blasted.

Also, the people I used to work for at the stained glass shop got their start in the sign business by making glass and wooden signs with the logos sandblasted in.

Once you have a hammer, you start to see nails everywhere. Likewise with a sandblast cabinet...

well, technically it would be "bead blasting" for the gun work.

Be very careful what you blast if you are going to do metal finishing. The media will pick up contaminants from the parts. This will wreck your blue job if you are not careful.

I sandblasted glass too, for awhile- you need a large cabinet to do it. we did our own work and had artists, etc, bring theirs to us to be done. that end of it is a racket, and profitable for the artist.

bead blasting is used to anneal welds, also.

I've gone to blasters since then to get old paint knocked off of metal furniture that I was refinishing, etc.

contamination, using the machine for different tasks, could be a problem.