A lot of jewelry makers are using printers that use wax instead of the abs style plastic. The primary advantage is they can get much smoother layering even though the layer thicknesses are comperable. (16 microns) The downside is that for resin casting they might not hold up under pressure, so it likely requires it being made as an investment casting ie lost wax used for a metal master.
I'd posted these guys a while back in some thread I'm sure is long buried as I found them about two years back.
http://www.ninjamagic.com/cgi-bin/gt/tpl.h,content=1&A secondary difficultly with a lot of the wax printers is that their programs cannot handle multiple objects where printers like shapeways and moddler can. That greatly impacts the build time for the CAD model. Multi-part models are much faster to make.
Print-a-part likewise offers simular resolution for their abs prints but they are fairly expesive and require single meshes which is why I've passed on them previously. If I can get a program that handles boolean functions better than Maya does then I can make use of those services.
If I ever win the lottery I will have one of these companies cast all my battletech CAD models in gold and have their laser barrels fitted with diamond studs so I can play with ultimate bling.