[Jared]

Printers like the makerbot/FIRST choice printers tend to be geared toward hobby grade projects, where accuracy, uptime, and maintenance aren't important. From talking to people and internet research, I agree with what you're saying, that these printers are difficult to calibrate and have issues clogging, and aren't suited well to making lots of parts without spending time watching the printer and fixing issues.

We have a stratasys Mojo printer, which is awesome. We use it at school for engineering design students to make prototypes and interesting models. We've made propellers, combination locks (that work!), planetary gearboxes (not for robot use), geneva cam assemblies, motor mounts, 8mm keyed CIM shaft to .500 hex adapters, phone cases, raspberry pi cases, and my favorite, a multi-part mold for a urethane shooter wheel.

Setup is extremely easy, you just need to install two cartridges (support material and construction material), which is done using no tools in under a minute. The print wizard software takes your model (or multiple models) and lets you rotate and arrange them on the printing tray for maximum efficiency before automatically slicing and generating the path. The software automatically chooses where to insert support material, which is dissolved and removed from the part after printing. The updated version of the software contains settings to increase/decrease use of support material. It is super easy to use and requires no maintenance, calibration, or other work.

It is however, more expensive, than a makerbot. You must purchase both support material and construction material, neither of which are cheap. They must also be purchased as "QuickPacks", which is a fully contained filament spool connected to a extruding head, that is replaced each time you swap filament. It is also set up so you can't cheat (easily), and you must buy their very expensive refills. You also need to buy trays for printing onto and pellets to dissolve in the included part washer to dissolve the support material.

It also prints ABS"plus" plastic, which is strong.