I've never considered tearing apart vacuum cleaners, but something you might try is cutting the cords off and stripping them for the copper wire. In your situation of just starting and using your car, you're pretty limited in what you can handle. My advise - concentrate on the non-ferrous metal which sell by the pound. But probably skip aluminum as it's bulky and take a lot to make a pound. Brass is good and easily found. For stripping insulation (that plastic stuff) off copper wire, use a box knife. For cutting foreign material off stuff like stainless steel, use a portable grinder. Mine is pretty big and was made for car body work, but you can get a smaller one that would work well and is easier to manipulate.
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