My Tukkari pinball cabinet kit build

[Raii]

Hey guys and greetings from Finland.

 

I recently ordered and received a Williams widebody inspired virtual pinball cabinet from Tukkari, a company based in Czech Republic.

Found their website about two weeks before ordering, browsed the site properly and I was amazed by the quality, the workmanship and everything I was seeing.

Looked like something that was done properly all the way, with every detail made to perfection.

Decided to take the plunge and ordered a kit.

This is my first pinball build.

 

It arrived really fast, left the factory Friday afternoon and arrived midday Monday to Finland. Kudos to FedEx, that was some fast weekend action.

My choice was the premium, fully assembled kit.

The package arrived in pristine condition, nothing was damaged in the transit which is always nice.

 

Unboxing was easy, the parcel was properly based on a wooden crate, just a few screws to remove to reveal it all. 

Took just a few minutes, no instructions needed

 

So far I have not found anything I could have personally improved, although I have some experience in designing and building stuff like this.

 

They have websites for EU at https://www.tukkari.eu/arcade-virtual-pinball-cabinets

and for US etc at https://www.tukkari.com

Shipping is available pretty much to every location known to man which is warmly welcomed  and not very often seen by most companies.

 

I have started buying parts for the build now; had zero parts at home for this so have to plan and buy wisely now. 

2 screens bought so far, an LG C2 42" OLED for the playfield and a 32" full hd monitor for the backbox.

 

I am going to document the build here. Going to make some videos too.

Included are two pictures from the kit arrival and two after unboxing.

Edited April 23, 2025 by Raii

[Raii]

 

[Raii]

42" LG C2 oled installed. Quite easy to adjust if needed.

 

32" Samsung G3 for the backbox and a Ground Force GWIZ 6.5" sub.

 

Sub 6.5" going in:

 
Had to make a 12mm high spacer because the Samsung G3 had a weird shape around the VESA 100*100 screw holes:

 

15.6 DMD and JBL 5.25" Stage3 527 speakers for the backbox.

Edited April 29, 2025 by Raii

[robertms]

14 hours ago, Raii said:

Had to make a 12mm high spacer because the Samsung G3 had a weird shape around the VESA 100*100 screw holes:

 

That's a pretty fancy spacer  How about a photo with the playfield down in resting position? What are you planning for the lockbar and side rails?

[Raii]

42" oled playfield and 32"backbox monitor first testfit. Spacer doing its job ok

 

I have no pinball parts at all bought yet, lockbar and siderails tips are warmly welcomed.

I am located in EU so the US stuff is probably a no go.

Edited April 30, 2025 by Raii

[jk40001]

That's some nice progress! I've attached a list of parts I've personally purchased for this cab from three different Germany-based e-shops, including links. It's not necessarily a complete list, but it might serve as some inspiration.

Pinball_cabinet_parts.docx

[Raii]

Centering the DMD screen 100% in its place felt like a bit of trouble.
Then I figured out a good way and downloaded a 1920*1080 test picture with green borders.
This picture will help me center the the DMD screen properly.

 

Edited May 9, 2025 by Raii

[Raii]

15.6" DMD installed.

[Rappelbox]

well done so far.

You'll run into issues with those huge USB-C and HDMI plugs. you'll need 90  or better 180 degree adaptors

The space is just too tight between the monitor and the speaker mount.

[Raii]

Very true @Rappelbox , ordered those last week and that is why the other speaker is removed in the last picture when installing the DMD screen.

[joni_999]

This thread is super helpful to me as I also plan on building with the tukkari base (I don't think there are any other flat packs / pre-built cabs available in Europe, right?)

One question: how do you keep the DMD in place? Is there something included from Tukkari?

Please keep posting!

The parts list from @jk40001 is also super helpful - thank you!

[Rappelbox]

1 hour ago, joni_999 said:

This thread is super helpful to me as I also plan on building with the tukkari base (I don't think there are any other flat packs / pre-built cabs available in Europe, right?)

One question: how do you keep the DMD in place? Is there something included from Tukkari?

Please keep posting!

The parts list from @jk40001 is also super helpful - thank you!

i already designed a bracket for it. some 15.6" monitors come with 75mm or 100mm vesa mounting holes. My brackets are designed for these

 

[Raii]

I used a hot glue gun myself. 

But a bracket is always a much better option cos the hot glue is about +70C so there is a small chance of some kind of failure to the DMD.

And it can be a bit of work to remove a hot glued DMD if needed.

[Raii]

My DMD is from Amazon de, an ARZOPA 15.6" portable full HD monitor, 90.16€ shipped.

As you can see, it has no vesa mount option.

 

This is the only thing so far that is not looking good on my cabinet, the glueing got a bit messy; the backbox was in the upright position, it was tight and I tried to make sure the DMD stays 100% on its place while glueing.

It was a bit of a hassle by me to be fair. Next time I would do the glueing a bit different.

No one will see this though when the cabinet is all finished

 

[jhoff80]

I see that Tukkari puts most of the buttons on the bottom of the cabinet, that's an interesting design.  I get it for some of the buttons but it seems like there at least should be a launch ball button under the plunger.

 

Also I'm a little confused as I look at their website what some of those bottom holes are for.  Like okay, I guess the four more centered ones on the front are for buttons, and maybe the one to the left is for a USB port?

 

...But what the heck are the similar holes in the back two corners and the right side about 1/4 of the way back?

 

Edited May 28, 2025 by jhoff80

[jk40001]

During development, two versions of the cab were introduced, and people basically voted with their comments on which one they liked more. Version 1 had three buttons on the left side of the front panel, and on the right there was a plunger with a launch button underneath—pretty much the standard layout we’ve seen a lot in recent years.

Version 2 went with a more minimalist design, trying to look as close as possible to real modern pinball machines. Most of the buttons were hidden underneath the cab except for the start button, and only the actual plunger was left on the right. This version ended up being the favorite and became the base for the final product.

Since this is a DIY project and everyone builds their Vpins a bit differently, I made sure to include enough holes at the bottom for extra buttons, even though most people probably won’t need all of them. The holes in the back corners are pass-throughs—for example, you can use them for wiring if you want to add LEDs under the cab. The one at front on the left is really for usb.

[joni_999]

On 4/30/2025 at 8:21 PM, jk40001 said:

That's some nice progress! I've attached a list of parts I've personally purchased for this cab from three different Germany-based e-shops, including links. It's not necessarily a complete list, but it might serve as some inspiration.

Pinball_cabinet_parts.docx 17.61 kB · 17 downloads

I've been faring quite well so far with the parts listed there. Thank you again for providing that list - it really helped me as a complete newbie!
For me the 30.5" legs were too tall so I switched to the 28.5" instead.
I also had to import the Jersey-Jack-Pinball lockdown bar from Pinballlife (a US company) as it was out of stock on pu-parts. Shipping alone was around 30% of the final price.
Unfortunately the JJP Lockdown bar reciever assembly I got seems to be poor quality (or I'm doing something wrong) as the latches don't properly catch onto the lockdown bar on one side and need an additional manual push from the inside (through the coin door) to fully lock. I hope I can find a solution/workaround for that.

I'm currently waiting on Cleveland Software Design's builders kit to finally get properly started (Damn you German Customs for holding my package hostage and UPS customer service for being incredibly unhelpful!!!). I chose CSD because he has a lot of good reviews and guide-videos available and his parts are very plug-&-play to install with little electrical work.

In the meantime I'm setting up the software as far as possible (Windows 11 & Baller Installer)

I also ordered a decal set from Retro Refurbs who offered to customize the size of the "Time machine" Decals for the Tukkari. I hope that turns out well.

@Raii How is your build doing?

[Raii]

I dont have any more parts to install at the moment so I am a good step behind you. 😝

 

I would like to use just one amplifier but seems like there is no good alternatives here in EU for the Cleveland Software Design's 7.1 SSF amplifier that I know of.

I am not so keen on ordering stuff from the US.

 

PinOne stuff or Arnoz or something else, have not really looked into these quite well enough yet.

 

The european sellers should make a few differently priced, well thought out sets of virtual pinball parts available, that would make the purchasing and building a cabinet a bit easier.

So, decisions decisions.

[jk40001]

Recently, quite a few people have used this particular monitor for the 15.6" DMD: https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/product/B0BXSNK5KD?th=1 It features a 75x75 mm VESA mount, and I’ve created a 3D-printable mounting bracket for it (the STL file is attached below). The metal speaker panel of every TUKKARI cabinet already has the necessary mounting holes prepared. Folks from the VPin community have already tested it, and it should fit and work just fine. That monitor has side-mounted connectors, so you’ll need 90 or ideally 180-degree adapters for them too.

Ver_4_TUKKARI_DMD_bracket_VESA75x75mm_prototype.stl

Edited June 28, 2025 by jk40001

[Raii]

Ordered a lot of quality stuff from Cleveland Software Design so the build can continue progressing.

 

Coming up are the following stuff:

- Addressable LED Plug and Play Kit with 6 matrix panels

 

- Virtual Pinball Builders Kit (Medium to Large Cabinet)

SSF and solenoids
Control board: PinOne
Plunger color: black

 

 

Edited September 2, 2025 by Raii

[RabidUrko]

Great cabinet stuff from that company.

 

[Raii]

Sure looks like xmas came early this year.

A nice package of pinball parts arrived via UPS from Cleveland Software Design.

Sent from USA 25.8.2025, arrived to Finland, my front door, 4.9.2025 so the journey took only 10 days, including some time spent at the finnish customs.

 

Troublefree shopping, thanks a lot to the mighty guys at Cleveland Software Design 👍

 

 

 

Edited September 4, 2025 by Raii

[Wildman]

I built my current cab with Cleveland Software Design parts and have not been disapointed at all, top notch parts.

1 thing i did learn though when you use the software to change settings in the board itself make sure you close the program down right dont just hit save and x it out,or it goes into a developer mode and your parts will not work like they should and you will be banging your head against the wall lol, Phil clued me in about that .. save then CLOSE the program and you will be fine it will save you alot of headaches 

[philbury]

I am learning a lot here and thanks to everyone for making all this invaluable info available. It really helps!

Interesting to see that Way of the Wrench crossed the Atlantic to choose Arnoz electronics and you European guys went Stateside. I’m in Europe and the Tukkari cabinet is the obvious choice. I agree with the above comment that Cleveland has put together some very attractive packages for those of us who are a bit bewildered by the setup once it goes beyond emulating the keyboard! I’m not able to start the project till November so being forced to wait gives me the chance to figure as much as I can in advance and hopefully make the right choices. One of my requirements is to be able to switch to using my Meta Quest 3 for VR while still using the cabinet for flippers and feedback. It would be good to have one switch to turn off the playfield and lights. 

[Thalamus]

Getting stuff over from the US has always been ... expensive for us Europeans. Not at all better since Donald took over. I'm confident saying that neither Arnoz or Cleveland will not disappoint you.

Edited September 8, 2025 by Thalamus