Frustrated with 3DS Max manifolds

I am currently working on a jewelry design which involves a number of curved shapes all connected around a central cylinder. The idea is for the cylinder to appear as if it is a pin going through the other shapes. I originally modeled this as separate pieces and planned on using a ProBoolean to attach them all together. This resulted in some serious manifold issues, so I reworked the model to manually attach each piece, and this also led to manifold issues. It all looks fine, but when I check for water tight meshes in AccuTrans it says there are holes, though I still can't find them.

I was hoping someone on here could give me a helpful hint to fix my problem. I've tried it a number of different methods with no success and I'm beginning to get a little frustrated. I've attached the model with the separate pieces, before any booleans, so if anyone is feeling helpful please take a look.

Maybe I'm just approaching this the wrong way, or making some serious mistake. I'm using 3ds max 2009 in case that matters at all. Thanks for any help!

This is a rendering I did of what it should look like ideally in case my description doesn't make much sense. Thanks again for any help,

Export your design to .STL format and post it here. Only MAX users can read MAX files.

Sorry, I thought of that after I posted. Here is the .stl file so non max users can take a look. Thanks.

Sorry one more upload. The first .STL is the model before the center and outside parts are merged, so I know its not printable like that. This .STL is after i tried to make it printable, though AccuTrans says this one has holes.
The reason I originally posted the max file was for other max users to take a look and maybe key me in on what I might be doing wrong, or at least their method for accomplishing this. Max is my program of choice, so knowing how to do it in other programs might not be that useful to me right now. Thanks again.

After a day of tinkering I decided to export pieces separately only to realize my problem wasn't with the booleans or my complicated connections, but a simple error when modeling my central shape. Fixed that and re-exported and now everything works fine. Turns out I didn't need help all along! Thanks to anyone who tried though!
Feel free to check out the printable model: Here