Can you reach it to grab it with pliers, vice grips perhaps, and then unscrew the bolt?

Vice grips and then a few small spot welds to secure captured nut to basket once out.

Maybe drive a wood screw or 2 in beside the nut to stop it from spinning?

Dremel that bad boy off ! Then offer to send new bolt and leg insert?

After you Dremel it off, borrow a leg nut and bolt setup from another of your machines to finish the sale.
Then get yourself a new bracket and bolts.

How would you dremel it? It is countersunk atleast a 1/4 inch into the wood, you would have to cut the head off at the leg and then you might damage the leg.

Try taping a flathead screwdriver in beside the nut, the pry on the side of the nut to stop it from spinning while turning the bolt out.

Cut the head off the bolt if you have room.

Or if you can get a chisel onthe press fitting you can then tap it loose with a hammer. Make a bigger notch in fitting with dremel to hold chisel if needed. Obvioously have someone hold the bolt on the other side while tapping

Or drill it out

Outside of cabinet you have plenty of real estate.

Yes cut the head off the bolt . But the leg is still attached and tight might damage leg.

Hammer it out from the inside? Also I thought those brackets were supposed to face the other way, not sit in the holes?

I would use one of these twist sockets over the insert. they make shallow and deep sets. autozone or similar may have a cheap set.

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So the after the head is off and the leg is off the game put a punch into the hole from the outside and hammer it back into the cabinet.

Again these bracket appear to have been installed backwards.

You can drill the bolt itself out if needed so you dint have to damage the cabinet

Cutting the bolt head iff is going to be easier though

I've seen them installed both ways and it appears the cabinet was countersunk for it but if they are press fit like that I'd definitely want them oriented inward so this can't happen.

If you can get a slot cut into the nut on one side you could use a stout regular screwdriver to hold it steady while unbolting. Maybe even making a bit of a notch by pounding the screwdriver in there, or wedging it from the sides, or in a prying fashion to provide some friction on the nut.

If you do resort to drilling maybe drill it from the head rather than the inside once you get enough of the head meat away it should pop off.

Sawsall? You will likely mar the leg some but...

Seems like a bad idea. This can’t happen if they are the other way. I’d flip them around if you’re going to replace them.

I do not think vise grips would have enough hold , but if you could secure them inside the cabinet against side and take a 5/8 box wrench on the outside on head bolt and try to twist break tbe head off?

As deep as that nut is sunk trying to get a good grip on it is going to be rough.

I agree cutting the bolt head is way to go. Get yourself some reinforced dremel cutoff discs - the black ones, not the garbage red ones. You should be able to slip the disc between the edge of the bolt head and the corner of the leg. Use fast speed on the dremel, but slow and steady pressure. Should help keep leg marring to minimum.

Once head is gone, hammer-punch the remains into the cabinet.

The cutting wheel might also help cut a slot into the inner nut as others have suggested.

Sounds like you don’t have a crazy amount of fabrication tools on hand, but I’d probably grind the head of the leg bolt as plat as possible then use a unibit to drill the head worm until the head is all but gone and the leg pops off. Then use a punch and drive the remaining stud into the cabinet and replace. No cabinet damage. No leg damage.

Attempting to weld inside the cabinet won’t end well. That’s 30-40 year old wood that’s brittle and stressed. It won’t catch fire like some kind of inferno, but the heat from trying to get the press but reattached to the plate would do some noticeable damage.

Just be calm. I’m sure your buyer understands how this stuff goes. If you drive 4 hours for a game, this ain’t your first rodeo. The buyer may have an idea or skill set.

Looked at the pic again, looks like there might already be some nubs on the press fit? If you hold the flat blade screwdriver on the left side of the bolt it should stop it from turning with some pressure. Now, if something is cross threaded from too much tightening you might have to get more drastic.

If you can break the angled piece of wood out of the corner with a chisel or screwdriver you should have plenty of room to hold the broken part and turn the bolt out. You’ll have to make a new wood piece when it goes back together.

Cutting from the outside and hammering the remaining piece in would still be my preferred method.

Thanks for posting your resolution.

And Chuckwurt is correct. That bracket was reversed. If it had been installed the other direction you would have had less problems.

I don’t doubt the originals were installed wrong. When the bracket is on correctly you won’t have much bolt sticking out, if any. When they are on backwards you’ll have an inch or so protruding.

FatPanda you had three of them that came apart? I’d be checking the rest of my games if that’s the case.

All of my pins have the brackets installed with the threaded bushing facing the inside of the cab. This way, when the bolt gets tightened it pulls the bushing into the bracket and a solid mounting.

If I understand you correctly, you had the bushing buried into the wood and when the bolt tightens it pulls the bushing out of the bracket. The bushings are press fitted in. And there is no thread in the bracket itself. Which almost turns the bolt into a bushing/gear puller.

I do not think Pinball Life sent out defective brackets, if I am understanding you correctly. I have installed these brackets on several of my pins and have not had any problems.

Those were not the original brackets.
You will see that the WPC style bracket has those sleeves on inside of cabinet too.
Those were added later, and installed backwards.

Great now I have to check mine for replaced ones since the original factory ones which appear to be punched and then have the threads cut (like 3 of them) are usually installed with the punch towards the cab..... and I probably will end up having the same issue the OP is when I go to take the legs off some games.....

Learning something new even after 32 years in the hobby.....

Yeah I’m pretty sure them inwards isn’t original. Someone changed that down the line I think. Flipping them around will ensure this issue never happens again. But either way will technically work.

I understand. I'm trying to poke a stick in your eye. I'm just telling you what most likely happened to cause the one you installed to come apart.

With another one of my wild ass guesses, I am thinking some one had this pin apart, lost the leg bolts and got some replacements that were just a little too short. Reversing those brackets offered up a little more reach for a too short bolt. And made for a lousy connection. Just a guess.

I had some punched brackets on two of my pins. But they were facing inside and away from the cabinet. As for the correct position, a new hire on the line could have installed the punched units backwards and buried them in the cabinet corner brace. Just a guess.

I have seen all kinds of strange things happen on a production line. Especially if the line is moving fast and the workers cannot keep up.

Like why did only some the 1965 Chevy Corvettes wit fuel injection manifolds have the serial number stamped on the manifold twice when once was all that was required? I don't know if the Vette people ever figured it out, but my guess is a bored new hire decided two times was better.

Sounds like a pin where the brackets were installed on a Friday at the factory.

I see you know about buying a car built on Wednesday, too

On the next one, upgrade to these babies:

https://www.pinballlife.com/desegastern-leg-bracket.html

Thinking to your earlier points, there was no reason to have the cabinet holes countersunk (counterbored?) for the brackets, unless they were supposed to be installed as shown in your "stolen" pictures. Shoving the nut into a hole only big enough for the bolt shaft would be a mighty task.

But as discussed and experienced, installing them the other way - with the nuts exposed to the air in the cabinet - is indisputably better. But if that were intended to be the case, there's no need for a wider hole in the wood to accept the nut.

So is this a case where, original brackets were just better back in the day and less apt to let the nut pull off the base to get stuck in the wood... or, just like Williams' infamous "oops" of assembling switches backwards in the same era, they installed the leg brackets "backwards" in a bunch of games too? I guess an air tool could pull the nuts into the wood to that counterbore without much difficulty after all...

Can you tell if these are the punched an threaded brackets? Or do they have the pressed nut as your do?

These two brackets are the same except for the extra material on the sides. They both have the same pressed in threaded insert. The one that is bigger with more material is really not needed. When you install the smaller bracket and tighten your leg bolts, you are going to have all the clamping action you need. The bolt pulls the leg tight to the outside of the cab; At the same time the bolt is pulling on the bracket. What you wind up with is a piece of inside corner wood is that is clamped tight between the bracket and the leg. It is not going anywhere. The bigger bracket looks nice but it is not going to give you anymore clamping action than the small bracket.

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The point of the larger bracket is increased corner strength. If you want to take advantage of that feature you utilize the screw holes along the sides.