What type of grease for drill press quill?

First post!

So I bought an old drill press a couple of days ago. It's a Shopmaster DP-24A (though it does say model 109, I believe its just what they named the same model for the Canadian market, because all of the specs are the same). It's a radial arm drill press so the throat depth is 24" (can't really think of anything it wouldn't be able to drill with that kind of throat depth :mrgreen:) and it weighs 72 lbs, a very solid machine.

Lowering the quill isn't as smooth as it could be because I can see that the grease on the geared section of the quill has dried up. What type of grease should I use on it? What other parts should I grease/oil? Thanks!

Regular auto spec grease will be fine, clean the old stuff off with kerosene/paraffin first.
A drop of gear oil ( EP90) on any unsealed bushes or bearing will help too, if re lubing bearings with grease do not pack full, particularly motor bearings, if there are grease nipples fitted just give them a few strokes of the gun, dont pump until grease oozes out everywhere.

Regular auto spec grease will be fine, clean the old stuff off with kerosene/paraffin first.
A drop of gear oil ( EP90) on any unsealed bushes or bearing will help too, if re lubing bearings with grease do not pack full, particularly motor bearings, if there are grease nipples fitted just give them a few strokes of the gun, dont pump until grease oozes out everywhere.

Thanks!

I just finished greasing the geared section of the quill. I wiped of the excess and ran the quill up and down a couple times then greased and repeated. The quill still feels like its "skipping" when I move down. What else could be causing this?

Are there any dings or chips in the quill or the alignment groove on the side of it? I've got that problem with an old drill press right now.

You might be missing teeth on the pinion gear....you'll have to pull it apart to find out. It's fix-able, but may take some money to get a new gear and maybe custom bored / keyed to fit.
("amateur machinist" here)

Is it "jumping" like maybe a tooth is missing from the gear or pinion, or is it more like smooth and sticky points along the vertical travel? If it's the latter, it still might be lubrication. Ideally, if at all possible, (and yeah, it'll be something of a pain), disassemble the quill, top pulleys, pull the chuck from the bottom of the quill (probably a Morse taper), clean everything down to nice bare metal, and give it a new coat of grease. I'm thinking the problem might be clods of old hardened grease, or who knows what that accumulated in the quill's bore, that are causing your problem.

Is it "jumping" like maybe a tooth is missing from the gear or pinion, or is it more like smooth and sticky points along the vertical travel? If it's the latter, it still might be lubrication. Ideally, if at all possible, (and yeah, it'll be something of a pain), disassemble the quill, top pulleys, pull the chuck from the bottom of the quill (probably a Morse taper), clean everything down to nice bare metal, and give it a new coat of grease. I'm thinking the problem might be clods of old hardened grease, or who knows what that accumulated in the quill's bore, that are causing your problem.

It's closer to the latter than the former. I really doubt that it's a missing tooth, because it's more like you can feel each tooth leave on of the teeth on the gear, so it just doesn't feel smooth when you move it.

Are there any dings or chips in the quill or the alignment groove on the side of it? I've got that problem with an old drill press right now.

I don't think there are any chips.

The spring loaded mechanism that returns the quill to the upward position may be too tight and binding the pinion shaft. There is usually a nut or two on the side opposite the handle to adjust its side play.

I've been using spray white-grease - that is _not_ the right stuff, just happened to be what I had and better than nothin'.