mdimeo, a few comments on here, while hopefully avoiding any spam. I am new on here but I assume it is frowned upon. There are stl editors that do a pretty darn good job of "booleaning" incredibly detailed meshes together, but they are tremendously expensive. For your workflow it would be better to use a service bureau…
excellent advice guys, thanks a bunch. I'm sure when the client figures out if this will actually get printed, they'll have more info about the printer itself (I currently have none) and I'm sure I can ask someone that works at the company how to best approach it. thanks!