If you ever do have to create another one, strip the topside of the playfield and clamp the protector to the top.

Using a small trim router ($20 at HF or HD), and a "pattern bit" that will follow all the holes without damaging the playfield, you will have the whole thing done in a hour.
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Also, by having everything off the top, you can COMPLETELY clean the playfield of any 40 year old crud hiding in the mechs and posts.

As I showed in the Elektra thread, the Rotozip bits cut those wire rollover slots in PET-G no problem.

They are made for cutting through that textured fiberglass wall board used in commercial kitchens and restrooms.

The pilot tip glides around electrical outlet boxes and ceiling cans.

$1 each and still made in USA

Because they are a hair under 1/8", you will finally have a use for the collet adapter that came with your trim router, lol
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Different plastics have different thermal expansion coefficients .

For instance these PET-G protectors have zero clearance around posts. In fact many of the holes are undrilled and you have to drill them yourself after installation.

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It's a sheet of 3M 300LSE "double sided" adhesive stuck on the back side.

You can buy it at any craft store or Amazon.

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If you are making your own protector, the Star Rollovers can be a challenge.

Instead of cutting around the star, it's easier to make the whole insert flush with the face of the protector

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-hardtop-restoration-comet#post-4470140

Think what a nightmare Strikes N Spares or Starlight would be, if you were trying to cut all those stars out....

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A sheet of 48"x96"x.02" PETG is ~$25 online

https://www.eplastics.com/sheets/PETGCLR0-020FM48X96

My local AIN Plastics has it for $19 a sheet, but you have to call 2 days in advance, so you can't just impulse buy - and they jab you for $1 a cut if you want the sheet pre-sliced into 5 playfields .

Some stuff is junk as far as expansion.

The "window replacement plastic" they sell at HD expands so much in the sun, that the plastic completely jumps out of the frame.

It comes with no instructions, but I imagine that a 32" wide piece would need a 1/4" of room around the frame to allow for it to not buck out, if placed on the sunny side of the house.

When they first came out, balls were hanging all over the place.

They tried American Football shaped holes, they tried a fork shaped piece of plastic, they even tried supplying a separate rollover piece that you aligned with the installed one.

The solution that always works, even on older, less steep inclines, is the flush insert.

They send a few thicknesses, but slow games like Fathom were simply a nightmare of hangups