Is there a gradation of proper and improper deeds? When somebody asks if it's OK for a Buddhist to do this or that, different answers may be given:


It goes against n'th precept
It is an unwholesome action
It will produce bad kamma
It will cause rebirth in hell
Anything else? If there is something more, please let me know.


Other possible answers may include:


It does not break any precepts
It is a wholesome action
It will produce good kamma
It will cause rebirth in heaven
It will lead to nibbana/enlightenment
Anything else? If there is something more, please let me know.


I wonder which of these things are completely equivalent (e.g. is an unwholesome action exacly the same as an action that produces bad kamma?), and if there is a gradation of these things (e.g. is breaking a precept worse than an unwholesome action that doesn't break a precept?).
I don't think there is a gradation where the quality of the action itself is concerned. All actions are always either kusala or akusala.


kusala: skillful, wholesome, good, meritorious
akusala: unskillful, unwholesome, bad, demeritorious


As people, though, we will always feel compelled to judge and compare actions. Stealing from the cookie jar is not as bad a stealing a car. Killing a fly is not as bad as killing a bird. But these distinctions are mind-made: in the end there is just kusala and akusala.

Now, whether there is a gradation tied to the kamma produced by any given action is an entirely different question (to which I have no answer, but I'd guess that there is a correlation between kamma and quality of the action).


  is an unwholesome action exacly the same as an action that produces bad kamma?


Yes. Without mincing words, both of these are two sides of the same coin.



(Also, in your two sample lists, you could also mention that an action could go with or against the Noble Eightfold Path.)