In my mind, there’s “grease” as a single thing. On the other hand, I know there are lots of types of grease & purposes for them, but I have no idea where to go to understand things just a little better. I sure don’t want to become a grease-guru, but I also want to have a tub or two around for fixing & protecting things without making anything worse.
How do I get a minimally working knowledge of this topic?
You have to find Fred, here. He would have the right answer for you.
In our metal fabrication shop - we stocked several machinery maintenance items including lubricants and grease. The guy who maintained our tool room would make up a list of what to order based on the OEM’s recommendations. I recall that some of what we used was grease with a molybdenum disulfide additive. But some of it may well have just been run of the mill lithium grease.
In our remodeling and plumbing business - we’d carry things like Oatey’s or Hercules plumbers grease that i believe was lithium based. But some of the guys preferred using the Hercules silicone based grease.
I’ve spied some primers on the topic online:
https://www.farmoyl.com/resources/common-grease-types-and-characteristics
I just know that you don’t mix certain type of grease or bad things can happen. Here’s a handy little chart I found while trying to find out what wasn’t compatible with what else.
https://www.thelubricantstore.com/grease-compatibility-chart