What, it didn't have one originally?

My rockwell does not have a quill return spring and looks like it never did. My friend owns a clausing 8520 and it does not have a quill return spring either
so I figured this was common practice on small machines.

I rely on the feel of the quill for sensitive drilling,

Yea, and there is litte feel with the full weight of the spindle on
a small drill bit. It forces you to hold the weight back instead of
pushing the quill down.

Then when you are drilling a larger hole you have the weight of the
spindle to help you push and it makes the drill jump through the bottom
of the hole.

Still my major grip is the damage to workpieces and cutters when
I slipup and the quill drops. This has only happened a couple times
but it is so damn annoying that it is time to do something about it.

I looked in MMC and they sell constant force flat springs. I think
I need a fairly strong spring and the strong springs on MMC are
pretty wide. I need to determine the required strength before doing
much else.

chuck