I have a wells-index 837, which may be a bit more Bridgeport than Index, but with all the mills I've been around the quill is like a drill press. No other handles required. The quill does pin to the quill shaft and can come out to reindex for better placement. The power feed lever, to the left, engages if the center of the crank is pushed or pulled. Had to go play with mine to make sure I was telling the story right. Power feed is slow though because it's going through a series of gears, not direct drive like a drill press. Also, when engaged and the mill is not running, the quill would be locked up because of the gear meshes. So, your problem doesn't sound normal. Easy fix would be to make sure the power feed is disengaged and the quill is engaged to the handle. Worst case is the quill shaft that engages the quill (essentially a rack gear system) has somehow disassembled itself. I really hope it's easy, and you can laugh about it some other day.