Everything has its converse -- vice has virtue; joy has sorrow; hex sockets have hex keys and wing nuts have wing screws.Wing screws are easily fabricated when the need arises. The only complication is that most screw heads in any given thread series are too large in diameter to fit directly between the wings of a wing nut. (The examples in the photo are 10-24.) An exception to that is hex socket head screws, but I don't care for the finished appearance (upper left); the hex socket head is too bulky to look right.
But a few minutes at the lathe with an ordinary round head screw gets you a reduced diameter screw head that's in good proportion to the wing nut (upper right).
Assemble the two pieces with red Loctite threadlocker or CA adhesive, and tighten very firmly.
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Addendum -- THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2013
If you need an M4 wing screw, but only have 8-32 wing nuts, just run an M4 tap through an 8-32 wing nut and you're away. M4 and 8-32 are very near one another in diameter and pitch. (M4 is slightly smaller in diameter than 8-32.) The M4 thread you get from tapping an 8-32 wing nut is entirely adequate for this application.
