Greetings from NW PA

Hello all, I'm from Northwest Pennsylvania and have been scrapping for 9 years as a way to get extra money.
I like to take things completely apart and separate the different types of metals. I try to recycle any plastic waste too. I know it reduces the weight but I like to see how things are made and make sure everything's seperated. I've joined this forum in hopes of learning to better identify metals.
My biggest difficulty is telling brass/copper/bronze apart.
I'd also like to learn if it's beneficial to separate boxed coils (doubtful that's the technical name) into copper and scrap metal or leave as is all for scrap metal. I used to strip wires for the better copper but it didn't pay off and I ended up getting jabbed with wire a lot.

Looking forward to learning

Greetings from DuBois ...
Scrape the metal you want to identify, than look at it under a light.
Copper is reddish-brown color, while brass is a yellowish color. "Red brass" is harder than copper.

Welcome from NW New York.

The boxed coils you refer to are likely transformers. Put that word in the search box in the upper right corner and you should find lots of posts regarding breaking those down. I have never had much luck but I'm working with limited tools. It seems that many people break down the bigger ones and sell the smaller as-is.