Ignoramus12347 fired this volley in
:

1. Break the varnish with a bobcat-mounted hydraulic hammer
2. Pull the laminations apart with the double acting press
3. One I have the windings out I will be happy.

If they're gapped lams that might work. That is, if all the "E" pieces
are oriented in one direction, and all the "I" pieces are assembled in
one piece, situated on JUST ONE end of the E pieces.

And that may be the case with a transformer that had a large DC component
flowing with the AC (like if it fed a half-wave rectifier bank). Core
gap reduces core losses with high DC components in the current flow.

However, the one appears to be a three-phase device. That's almost
always a AC apparatus (even if it fed a rectifier, it would likely be a
full-wave affair), and the laminations are going to be truly
"interleaved" "E"s and "I"s alternating top and bottom.

You can't get those apart that way.

You CAN saw off the top of the core, then just press the coils off from
the other end. A big (BIG) bandsaw would make quick work of that.

I keep forgetting you're just scrapping it. It doesn't matter if you cut
the core. Nobody's going to salvage it as transformer laminations,
anyway.

LLoyd