Nice review with nice pics. I'm definitely a believer in these. I have made two and I'm fixing to make #3 shortly.

Your star rollover solution is to remove the rollover inserts and then reset them to match the height of the protector. I took it as an opportunity to install nice, new clean stars and rollover inserts. Use heat gun to remove the inserts and then tap new ones in using a block of wood to tap them in even with the protector. The fit was tight enough that I did not bother to glue new inserts in.

I like Plexus for my car headlights but it is not going to remove scratches.

The polycarbonate protector I made for my pin got scratched real easy. After a few hours of play times, the nice new shine was not quite as bright but it still looked good on top of the play field, however, when removed from the PF and held up to the light, there were all kinds of minute scratches. But, as I said, it still looked good on the play field.

If you keep in mind how a dirty worn out ball will cut up a play field that dirty ball will also cut up a protector.

Scratching is poly's weak point. Other than that, it is tough as nails.

Watch this video. At 1:12 minutes in, you will see an actor banging some poly with a hammer. This stuff is tough, but it will scratch. THe remedy for poly scratches is Novus 2 followed by Novus 3. (At least that is what the vid says). Acrylic, OTOH, does not scratch as easily, but you can shatter acrylic with a hammer.

Well now, that question is germaine to the conversation.

To answer the other poster's question, I waxed my play field and installed the protector. A ball responds to wax on a protector just as it responds to wax on a play field so I waxed the protector, as well.

That's because whoever set it up did not set up right or just did not know what the fuck they were doing. I have a Stern Big Game with 5 rollovers and I have no problems. Not one. That 's because I raised the inserts .030" to match the thickness of the polycarbonate.

I have a Stern Seawitch with 2 rollovers that I also made a poly protector for. Again, I raised the inserts. I had a brief hangup problem with one rollover and a bit of work with a file in dressing the edge made it problem free.

Both of these pins play fast. I guarantee you would not bitch about how they play.

I have one more older Stern with a beautiful play field and very nice inserts. It is all original. On some inserts I am starting to get a bit of ball deflection at 3 or 4 inserts; I don't like that. So I am going to make a poly protector for it, as well. This is for two reasons: I want to keep my nicely waxed play field looking nice and I don't like ball deflections.

Shit man, ever since this post got started you come in with a negative attitude about play field protectors. It almost seems like you are coming from the planet of since-it-was-not-my-idea-then-it-is-not-any-good.

You oughta try lightening up a bit ---and look at the other side.

I wax mine. It for sure speeds things up.

Well, look at it this way: Look at all the dirt it kept from getting on your play field.

It works best if the protective film is still on the protector.

If it is an outside edge or curve you are working on, you can use a file or even a pair of sissors.

If it is an inside curve or area you are working you can use the file or if you take your time and are careful you can use a Dremel Tool with some rotary tools.

If the protector film is still on after you have made your trim then slide some sand paper along the edge to clean up where you trimmed to remove any burrs or the fluffy stuff a Dremel leaves behind.

I use Mother's carnauba wax. Makes them fast. About looks...they will scratch. I don't see the scratches unless I life the protector from the play field. It still looks good after hundreds and hundreds of plays but it is not super shiny like when new.

Spade bits can rip your work if not careful, but they cut fast. I did not have much luck with my Forstner bits but mine are cheap Harbor Freight bits.

I tried punching but was having trouble with the punches rolling the edge of the hole which required me to get the heat gun to flatten out the punched area.

My best luck was with spade bits and Dremel Tool rotary sandpaper sanding tools.

They are gonna scratch. If you don't want them to get scratched then don't play your pin, which is the exact opposite of what you bought a protector for. Mine are used and have been used quite heavily. I know they are scratched but I can't see the scratches when I am playing and my pins still look good. They don't have that melted candy shine like when they were new but they still look good.

I wax mine but don't know if you can polished them or not.

I sort of look at them like they are underwear. When my underwear, which protects my trousers, get "scratched" up enough I replace my underwear.

Look at it that way and enjoy playing your pins.

I have been in business before and understand that profits can be thin and expenses keep rolling. I won't be caviler towards your finances.

Your protector is scratched up. Fairly well.

Has your Fathom taken in a lot of coin since you put the protector on?

Has the take slowed down any at all?

If so, do you think the take has gone down because the protector is scratched up?

If you are still taking in coins, then why worry about it? It is at a point where it could not get much worse.

If I were inclined to play a pin, I would not let a few scratches stop me. If the scratches effected ball movement in a deleterious way I would not feed any more money but just looking at scratches would not keep me away.

So, if it is a location pin, and it is making money, and the protector is doing it job of protecting your play field why mess with success?

Why waste your time polishing it? Go buy an .020 or .030 sheet of polycarbonate/Lexan/Macrolon for $20-$30. Then use the old scratched one as a tracing pattern. Trace out a new one. Get some tools and cut it to fit. .020 thick poly cuts very easy with a pair of cheap scissors.

This is my Seawitch with the protector I made for it two years ago. It has seen hundreds of games in two years. Is it shiny like new. No. But still does not look bad.

IMG_8604 (resized).JPG

This pic with the sloppy cut shows that there is a protector there.

IMG_8605 (resized).JPG

Google searching " can polycarbonate be polished" brings this. So, I guess you can.

https://www.google.com/search?q=can+polycarbonate+be+polished&oq=can+polycarbonate+be+polished&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l3.12294j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I thought you were already at that point. Especially with the Fathom pics you put up.

I didn't know this was a fire drill.

No. You just don't lay it down and hold it with the posts. You need to make a paper pattern. And then transfer paper pattern to the sheet of petg. I assume you are doing this on your Flight 2000. Yes? No?

If this if for F2K, you will want to make the 3 posts up above your pop caps your anchor points. At no other points on the play field will you want the protector to have contact.

Or you could make the two posts behind the #4 and #5 drop targets your anchor points for a more central location for locking the protector down.

You can either make the 3 posts your lockdown points or you can make #4and #5 drop targets your lock points, but not both.

Before placement: As others have said, Vacuum. Get a blow gun and compressor if you have one and blow it down. And vacuum some more.

I wax mine with out problems and the ball will play faster.

image-8 (resized).jpg

Quite well. Actually, the insert could be missing and a protector will make it playable.

Nice template.

What you will want to do when you are cutting your petg is to leave the web of material that lies between your shooter lane and play field. Then remove your inner shooter lane rail. Position your petg on your play field and lock it into position either with some screws or tape. You will need to drill some holes to match the holes for the inner shooter lane rail you removed. Then screw the inner rail back into position and trace a line around the inner rail. This will give you a good straight line cut to get the petg located into the shooter lane with no guess work.

While this is no big deal, I would recommend leaving the petg in the shooter lane as long as possible for now and then cutting of later. After you have your protector located and locked dowen cut the last thing you will do is follow the undercut in the shooter lane to where it comes flush with the shooter lane surface. Drill a small 1/16" hole at that point. Then trace two lines down towards the shooter rod. This will give you a nice, straight, centered V-cut that will let the ball launch is if the protector is not even there. Then you can cut it as short as you would like.

If there parts that locate in the "S" curves of the ball lock you might to lay your petg down here as well, place the parts on top and trace out your cut lines, then remove the parts and make your cuts.

You will have to mix it up a little bit. Put some posts on to get your bearings and then lay it down. Plastics go on last as they interfere with installing the protector. You'll figure it out. Just keep a watchful eye out for any areas where the protector might start riding on a post. If you have a riding condition you will need to Dremel/grind material away. If you have any part of the protector riding any play field part the protector will not lay flat.

That broken area looks like it is in front of the apron and behind the flippers. If my guess is correct then it should still be usable.

You can take a Dremel and grind of the broken area.

Ask for a replacement and keep it for a spare.

Terrible half-assed head-in-ass packaging for sure.

It will flatten out.

I think I know what your problem might be. Maybe not, but I'll give if a try. I have made 5 protectors but I have never bought a commercial unit. I am going to assume a commercial protector is cut with a little more precision then a home job.

My first protector ( mine are made of poly. I don't know how cleanly PET-G cuts). I cleaned and vacuumed and all of this white stuff started showing up under my play field.

I used a Dremel Tool to make a lot of my cuts and while I thought I had cleaned my protector thoroughly there were still many very small shavings of poly on the edges. Typical play field action would cause these small shavings to break loose and pollute the underneath of my protector. And you can feel them. You would be surprised at just how small a piece of trash that gets under your protector can be felt.

Solution: I had to start running some sandpaper along the edges of every cut surface and make sure my protector was really clean. That ended my problem.

If you have not sanded and really smoothed the edges of your cuts you might give that a try. I know its work, but you might try removing your protector and make sure you have no shavings on your edges, vacuum your play field again. I think you will have a better experience if you do that. And those shavings don't like to come off easily. I really had to work at it.

On my first two protectors I was sort of anal about how I made my cuts. I wanted it to look like there was not protector there. I made close cuts around all of the posts, etc. These were made of .030 thick material. Some areas could be cut with scissors and some cuts had to be accomplished with rotary bits.

My last 3 were cut from .020 thick material. This is thick enough to cover all the bumps and cupped inserts. And you can make most of your cuts with scissors. This time around I would make a cut line at a post that looked like a "V" instead of grinding out a round cut for a post. This is a cleaner cut that does not need a rotary tool. If you look closely you can see it but it is not all that noticeable and you won't know it is there during game play.

If you make a new one you will have to clean up, too.

Unless it is really ugly, if it was me, I would clean it up and try it out for a while. Your mileage may differ.

I have used hole punches and they work well. However, I found the punches deformed the plastic at the cut edge and I was having to use heat from my industrial heat gun to flatten them out. Not a biggie but something to be aware of.

I don't see why a Dremel drum would not work. But I never thought about doing it that way. Mine was realizing I had a problem but not knowing the cause. And when I removed the protector and saw what the problem was I just grabbed for some sandpaper and went to work.

You know you need to clean up the edges. How you arrive at that is something whatever makes you feel comfortable. It is easier to do before you remove the protective covering.

Protectors have come a long way in the last 2.5 years. Today, everybody knows what they are and what they can do. A short time ago, many did not know what PET-G or polycarbonate was and thought a protector was just some other kind of Mylar covering.

Your Spiderman should have a double-post support bar that just lifts up and supports both sides of that huge play field. This support (which sounds like yours might be missing) places the play field up in the 45 degree position. On both sides of your cabinet you are going to see some matching brackets where your lift support pivots from. Or you are going to see some holes in the sides of the cab where the support brackets are supposed to be.

Go yo Home Depot and get some industrial cleaner like Simple Green to soak your parts in. Get a fingernail brush or an old toothbrush to scrub the parts with. Mean Green works well but it is a little more aggressive ( wear rubber gloves). Zep Industrial Purple works very good (definitely wear rubber gloves).

If you have the spare dollars, get a tumbler to clean up all of your metal parts in. Otherwise, it is scrub-a-dub-dub.

Yes. That is the support brackets and the ladder you need.

Every once in awhile someone comes to the board talking about the problems that are having with their protector not laying flat on the play field. My opinion is that 99% of the time it is due to interference between the protector and a play field part somewhere on the play field. In my case, the problem and the cause are located next to each other. Sometimes the cause can be on the other side of the play field

I have an example that may help visualize what is causing the problem. I had to remove one of my homemade protectors to do some other work and reinstall the protector. Tonight I ran into puffed up protector issue up in the back box area.

The piece of tape marked with the X's was not laying flat like it was supposed to. The problem is interference between the post and protector that is marked with the arrow. This was not a problem before I removed the protector but it must have positioned a little different on reinstall.

IMG_9993 (resized).JPG
IMG_9994 (resized).JPG

Loosening the post screw and moving the post a little bit solved the problem. These things do not just jump out and say "Here I am". It took me 5 minutes to find this. But even though the problem was corrected by moving the post a little bit the post is still too close to the protector. Especially if heat from the lights expands the protector. Tomorrow I will grind a little bit of the protector to make this problem go away for good.

IMG_9992 (resized).JPG

I hope these pics might help someone who runs into this with their protector install.

Yep. That looks like play field debris (swarf). Don't obsess over it. That stuff won't affect your play action. And with the lights on and glass on you will have to look hard to see it.

Play the game for awhile. This might give the protector more time to do more shedding. But, yeah, it is hard to find and remove the stuff from every nook and cranny.