Sorry for the delay. Apparently this app doesn't tell me when people reply.
Most of what I make ends up in space. We use pyrolytic graphite, which we actually make ourselves on site, which can stand up to some pretty extreme temperatures with very little expansion or contraction. There are other applications as well, mostly involving any situation where conductivity is important. Some hospital imaging machines use it instead of aluminum in high temperature scenarios. It's very good at what it does, but its use is fairly limited due to its absolutely insane price tag.
Machinist here. But not just any machinist. I work almost exclusively with graphite. I'm sure you can imagine what a mess that makes. We do have a powerful dust collector that runs all day, but it doesn't catch everything. We get covered in the dust every day. The company does have a locker room and showers for us though, so it's not too bad. We still leave nice and clean.
I actually just became a grandfather two days ago. I'm looking forward to, "Listen, things were different back in the nineteen hundreds..."
We didn't have one of these. Instead, I got to crouch on the ground and hold the post with my hands while my father brought the front-end loader bucket down on it. Good times.