Sandblasting is so cheap here in Michigan, that hand sanding is hard to justify, the cost of sand paper and time wasted. I own a pressure blaster, but still send my stuff out to have it done professionally. I only use my blaster when a spot is missed or for a late night fix.
Powder coating while costly, turns out so nice and is so easy to deal with, just pick out the color and pick up the great looking part. I own all the painting stuff, regulators, respirators etc, and I utilize powder as much as possible. My powdercoater preheats the parts in his oven before spraying the powder, it helps the powder flow into the corners and seems to eliminate the chipping other powder coaters complain about.
