air conditioner compressors , a can of money or a can of worms ?

Not a problem. I can give you what I do on refrigerator/freezer compressors, as those are the ones I have the most time with. I have done some AC also, but those vary a bit more in how they are put together inside. One thing I do a bit different than a lot of folks here is when I get ready to take a compressor apart, I drill a couple of holes to drain the compressor oil first. This way I do not have a mess from the oil coming out of the holes from the copper lines I removed. When I get ready to cut the casing (using a angle grinder and a thin metal cutoff wheel from harbor freight), I start usually just above the seam weld. I will make a thin cut all around the casing. Once this is completed I go around again a bit deeper. Finally I do it again a third time all the way thru the casing. I found if I do it like this then it does not wear the wheel down as fast. When I use to just cut thru in one pass sometimes it would take more than one wheel to get it cut all the way open. This way I can cut over two casings with one wheel. After the final cut the top half of the casing should just fall away. From here if you are lucky all you have to do is remove 4 bolts and the electric motor will remove easy. After pulling the motor up most times it will have wire attached to the bottom. Just snip and viola, you have the motor removed. From there it is easy to remove the windings and you now have number 2 copper. Sometimes I found I had to remove the entire motor from the casing. Most of them sit on a set of springs. I use wire cutters and cut the springs, turn the casing over, snip the wire, remove the 4 bolts and again you have your electric motor. Hope this helps.