Some years ago, I purchased a set of dining table chairs. Alas, despite being happy with them in other ways, they are not well made. After a few months of normal use (pulling them out, sitting in them, scooching forward and back, etc) the legs get wobbly.
The reason is that the legs are held firm only by two bolts, each, as shown below. The bolts go through those crosspieces and into the chair leg itself. When tight, they provide rigidity to the whole structure, but they are the only thing doing so-- the pieces at right angles are just glued on. After normal use, the bolts get loose, the legs get wobbly, and I have to turn them upside down and tighten the nuts with a wrench which is awward due to the positions. (And annoying, because I should not need to provide quarterly maintenance on chairs.)
Question 1: How can I get these things to stay straight? A little locktite, maybe? Where would it be best applied?
The upper image shows what this assembly is supposed to look like, from underneath the seat of the chair. However, I just discovered one of the chairs has a bolt that has completely pulled out of the chair leg, as shown in the lower image. But that bolt (if that's the right term) has nothing to grip on to make driving it in easier. Fingers are just not sufficient.
Question 2: Is there any easy way to get that thing driven deep into the chair leg, other than aligning it and turning the nut quarter-turn by quarter-turn? (In fact, will even that work?)