New scrappin nut in South Carolina

Hello new friends who just LUV tearing stuff up! Have always wondered why I liked tearing stuff up so much..Now I know.
Kinda new to separating metals. Have sold a few loads of ferrous, but now have a job which gives me free reign to their dumpster! Hardware store. Their motto is..If it's broke, Don't Fix It, throw it away! Soon as I figured that out I now park my truck beside the dumpster. Now get old drill motors, shelving, displays, hangers, brass fittings, old faucets, bad water hoses..the list goes on and on. Read a few posts on getting copper off arms and stators. Gotta love them stators, now that I know what they are! Have discarded electric and motorized yard cleanup tools. (weedeaters, blowers, etc.) Got doctors hours too.. Noon - Six, M-F, no kids, and winter here soooooo LETS TEAR SOME STUFF UP! I need to learn to see the different types of aluminum. The copper is pretty simple, and I'm hoping the brass is too. I need to learn how far to tear stuff up (or down).
Also have a small scale scale earthworm farm that turns my veggie scraps into free organic fertilizer. Gonna try and train them to clean copper...See yall at the scrap pile!