Refrigerator Compressor

I opened my first yesterday. Just to say I have done it. Was not fun. Had to use a sawzall with a metal-cutting blade. Took me about 3 hours. I tried to cut around three fourths of the way around it & pry the top off. Wouldnt budge. I then drilled holes in the rest & took a crowbar to it to finally break it enough to where I could bend it back.The reason why I had so much trouble was that It was hard to position it in a vice to where I could cut all the way around it.

After getting it open... thinking I had finally won.... I noticed that it had three metal tabs holding the motor in with springs. Had to sawzall them off. Then I tried to cut the top copper ring off with the sawzall & it just ripped out copper wires. I need a cleaner way to cut the ring off. Any suggestions? I may have to use a dremel cutting disc ... gonna take a while but I have the time. I prefer the copper be in one piece than a mess of cut & seperate wires I have to pick up with my fingernails.

Question... what grade copper is this? It didnt seem like the windings had varnish or anything else on it.

edit: I was prepared to throw a $h|T-fit if it turned out to be aluminum windings after going through all it took to open it.

I doubt I will bother doing this again. If I had a setup like this guy... .... then maybe, but I dont.

Question... what grade copper is this? It didnt seem like the windings had varnish or anything else on it

If it's in a winding then it has some kind of varnish on it or they would short out and burn up from touching each other.

Resourceful, I would be interested in seeing your math.

Dirtymoney, my yard grades it at field copper which is .10 less than #2. But then I do leave all the string on the windings and most of the plastic.