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!

Welcome from south of Chicago