Will be interesting to see over time if the edges collect dirt (much as the original pop bumper mylars). Agree the center rollover cutouts seem poorly conceived.

Thank you for the review.

I'm in a similar boat in that I was intrigued by the concept of leveling the playfield on my Atlantis but did not pull the trigger due to the requirement to pull the wire lane guides. I had thought about the solution you implemented and am glad it works well. The criticizm regarding the funky cutouts at the star rollovers sounds like, had you known, it may have swayed your opinion towards not buying it.

To me, Atlantis is my desert island game and, as such, I should just buy a Wade repro.

I bought the same product and, although I 100% agree that the cutouts by the star rollovers are less than ideal, the game-play for the most part is great and isn't significantly affected. Yes, there are absolutely some balls that change trajectory (some in the player's favor, some not), which can be annoying at times, but overall it's a great product in my opinion.

I'm like you: my playfield art is in very good shape overall (especially after some tasteful touchups by me), but has cupped inserts. So I'd prefer to stay original if I can, and the PF protector is a good option.

I AM curious about drilling the holes for the pins (I haven't done that yet). Did you just use a regular drill bit? How large? I am thinking I'll need the holes a bit larger than the pins so the plastic doesn't "bind" against the pins and create tension in the plastic that shouldn't be there.

Regarding dirt, I haven't noticed an issue yet after a month of play. Granted, the PF was spotless when I assembled the game. About once a week, I take a can of compressed air and "dust" everything really well. No issues so far.

I have the same type of protector on 3 of my old Ballys. I like them so far. Strange the way they did the cutouts for the rollovers though. You are right, can't hear the ball roll.

I'll try to post a video later this week of my Atlantis in action with the protector on it.

The overlay company could not cut out the stars in the star rollovers because they are installed randomly at the factory.

Here is a NOS Gottlieb and you can see that the points of the stars are random in their direction.

The crosshairs are centered on the rollovers, ignore the black keylines:

rollover_(resized).jpg

The cutout over the star is simply to keep the ball from getting stuck. Simple as that.

As for the pins, I used them to my advantage. I left them out until I got the protector in just the right place. At that point I drilled holes just big enough for the pins to fit through and pounded them back in place. Now the pins hold the protector and keep it from moving at all. When I put the protector on my Abra Ca Dabra, I noticed it could move back and forth a little, so I found a hidden spot under a plastic, drilled a tiny hole and used a small screw to secure the protector.

The fact that these protectors completely level cupped inserts makes them a God send for EMs. I really hope they do Target Alpha!

They could make the holes in the protector sheet round, then include adhesive star insert fill ins for you to align yourself.

insert_(resized).jpg

This whole thread reminds me of Grandma's house in the 1970's.

plastic-furniture_(resized).jpg

Imagine what that rug would be worth today!

onemillion_(resized).jpg

Ball guides come out and go back in easy as pie. Just takes a pry bar and a piece of thick cardboard to protect the playfield. Even pressure and it slowly but surely comes out of the playfield with no damage. Gives a chance to run them through the tumbler too.

Agreed. I do this to every game when I first get it so I can clean the PF with ME and alcohol, then do touchups, then wax. Then fully repopulate. If you do it slowly and carefully, I've had very, very few issues.

Pinheads are always worried that a burr or a barbed end will cause a tearout.

gottlieb_guide_(resized).jpg

Adhesive star fill ins would work. There is another way to make a fill-in but too complicated to talk about here.

The way I got around the rollover issue on the protector I made for my Big Game was to route out the holes for the rollovers with a palm router and then install new rollovers height-matched to the .030" thickness of the protector material. I had five rollovers to work and I'm very happy with the results. There was enough meat on the rollovers that raising them up .030" causes no problem. All I had to do was adjust the switches.

I also cut slots for the lane guides so I can remove the protector when I need to. All I have to do is remove the plastics and 4 or 5 posts and it will lift right off.

For anchoring, I have two tight fitting holes on the two posts for the upper inlanes. The rest of the protector is free and allows for any expansion for heat from the feature lights. It took several final fit and trims to get it trimmed so there was no interference in any way.

And, I also noticed, when I first started playing the pin with the protector in place that it was quiet. But that has changed. I probably have 25 playing hours on the game now and at some point in time I could hear the ball rolling like it was on wood.

The stuff is damn near unbreakable but it will scratch so if you use beat up balls you will eventually be sorry.

I am very happy, so far. It smooths out rough inserts. It takes the beating and saves your play field. And it plays fast!

If I were to order one I would specify for the holes for the rollovers to be cut to diameter and then remove my rollovers with a heat gun and install new rollovers tapped in to match-height. I would also require slots to be cut for the inlane guides for easy install.

Here is the post to the one I made if anybody is interested.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/making-a-play-field-protector-for-my-stern-big-game

Any chance he wants two reviewers? I'd love to try a different one!

Mr. Wizzo, that would be great. You look like you know how to get around on a play field. Tell him to cut just a diameter for the roll overs without those flaky cut outs. And then get yourself some new roll overs and install to match-height. Tell him to cut slots for the inlane guide wires, too.

One item the sort of scares about the elongated cut out in the pic from the OP is that you now have 4 new impact points. Every time that ball crosses a roll over it is going to drop down and hit the play field. And then you might left with 4 new wear spots to deal with.

I'm curious, could just a slit cut in the poly work as well? Instead of that 2 or 3MM gap you created. Does the poly flex enough?
Thanks for the review. That company only has a few EM titles.

You could do it with a slit. But you would have to cut the slit by hand with a razor knife. Slotting with a Dremal is much easier. And yes, the poly would flex enough that you could do it with a slit, but you will have to work harder to install and remove it. That is unnecessary labor, IMO.

You are not going to make the protector disappear. Anybody who takes a medium look at your machine will see the protector. Consider it a feature.

What I can tell you is that when you are playing a game, you won't even notice because your table will play so nicely. Cupped inserts are no longer a problem that diverts the ball. If the ball at the top of the table is heading for your flipper, it will reach your flipper. No more last second change in ball trajectory that sends the ball SDTM.

Will it get dirt under it? Yes. Just lift it off and vacuum the play field. No biggie.

Will it grind dirt into the play field? I don't know. I have not been using it long enough, but I don't think it will be a problem. Especially, if you clean and vacuum your play field once in a while.

Does it get dimples? No. I have not done a legitimate hardness test, but my SWAG method tells me it is harder than play field wood with clear coat.

And, in my opinion, anybody who tells you that it does not play fast does not know what they are talking about.

Since there is a designer monitoring this thread, I will add a suggestion. I would change the hole size around the pop bumpers. Right now it is just barely bigger than the switch platter. If the protector is not perfectly centered the pop bumper switch can hang up. So I would either make the hole an extra few millimeters bigger or make it much smaller so the switch is on top of the protector.

I would also change the gap along the edge of the drop-targets as it's currently JUST the wrong size that occasionally the ball gets stuck there. Doesn't happen often, but once is too much in my opinion. Either bring the playfield protector all the way to the very edge of the wood, or else make the gap a couple of mm wider.

I understand. It is a generous offer. However, if the supplier wants to make an impact, he needs to know what is needed to make his protector a success in the marketplace. And I am going to guess that most people will not want to remove parts what were intended to be permanent. OTOH, as you have shown, they can be cut manually if one is so inclined.

BTW: You can cut .030 Macrolon/Lexan/poly with a pair of scissors along any straight line.

Yes. That is the way I made mine. I ran the protector all the way to the edge of the wood. There is no reason not to. Pulling it back away from the drops is the wrong way to go.

Is there any way you can make some .030" thick shims to raise your pop bumpers? I did that with mine to compensate for the thickness on the protector.

I definitely don't like the cut outs for the rails. It is worth the tiny bit of effort not too have those slots there.

Will be interesting to see if the ball gets caught on the rollovers without moving them up.

As I mentioned above, I used the lack of holes for the two pins to my advantage by drilling tiny pin holes that helped hold the protector in place. This leads me to another suggestion. If I were making these, I'd have two places on each playfield where the protector has a tab that extends under a plastic and has a small hole. This would allow a small hidden wood screw to secure the protector once it is put in the exact correct position. Otherwise the protector can move when raising the playfield, etc.

I just put one on my Bally Lost World. I don't like the cut out for the roll over. The fit over the in lane switches nee to be cut a little. There is an area near the spinner I don't like. Now I have to look at the one I bought for Flash too see how they cut out 5 rollovers(the game is in storage) It does look and play great if you overlook the problems. Joe

SAM_1783_(resized).JPG

SAM_1764_(resized).JPG

SAM_1775_(resized).JPG

SAM_1769_(resized).JPG

It looks like they took a really wide cut around that one post on the left in the first and third picture. Based mostly on the last picture, it looks like the whole protector needs to be slid a little bit downward toward the flippers?

This brings me back to the concept of securing the protector so it can't slide around. Here is a picture of my Abra Ca Dabra. For some reason they ran the protector all the way underneath the center plastic at the top of the playfield. I used that to my advantage by drilling a small hole through the protector and securing the protector with a screw that is hidden from view from the player vantage point. Now it doesn't move when I raise and lower the playfield. All the switches stay centered.

tempFileForShare_2016-03-19-18-28-57_(resized).jpg

I'll move it around tomorrow. I'm going to cut pieces of mylar to hold it in place. Joe

No' I never went to York. See ya at Allentown, Joe

I put the protector in Flash to see what it looks like. I left the film on so it doesn't get scratched. Not happy with it at all. I'll send them an e-mail over the weekend.

SAM_1808_(resized).JPG

SAM_1807_(resized).JPG

SAM_1806_(resized).JPG

SAM_1805_(resized).JPG

Can you explain what you are not happy about? Looks great in the picture.

I don't blame you for not liking it. The way the manufacturer is cutting out around the rollovers is substandard. Having said that, the only way to make it correctly would be for the MFR to require you to remove and reset the rollovers to match the height of the protector. Some people could do that and others would blow it and then blame the MFR. No easy solution here.

The lower part of the play field where the MFR has cut out for the chrome rods below the flippers concerns me less. Yeah, they could be a little tighter but if they were too tight then variations in play fields might cause clearance problems.

The way they cut around the rollovers sucks. The ball will make contact with the playfield and it looks like a slow rolling ball could get stuck.
I guess I'll bet putting some mylar down and cutting the rollovers out. Also the shooterlane is too short. Joe

Rollovers are always a problem as cottonm4 mentioned. They left it that way so the ball will not get stuck, so I would put some mylar down first and go with it.

You don't want the shooter lane to come all the way down because the ball can get stuck on it as it exits the trough. I cut the shooter lane section short with scissors on both of my games to prevent this from happening. I suspect the manufacturer learned this lesson and has started making them shorter to begin with. There is no artwork to protect in the shooter lane anyway.

You won't see the line on the roll overs on the left side ( because of the black paint) but you will see it on the 3 right side ones. I
still think they should of made the holes the right way. I put strips of mylar on the shooter lane pc. If I don't like it I'll cut it off.
Thanks Joe

Here are some pic's of Lost World with the game on. Joe

SAM_1905_(resized).JPG

SAM_1906_(resized).JPG

SAM_1908_(resized).JPG