before losing a bunch of value, I would get on the weapons guild and talk to some of the builders on that site to find out what the actual rules are. the torch cut reciever rules are for parts kits "imported" into the US today. back in the day they weren't required to be torch cut.
My first stent parts kit in the mid 90s was a 30 dollar saw cut sub machine gun. with a factory barrel. This parts kit is still 100% legal to own because it was imported to batf spec in the 90s. importers can't import it in the same state today due to changes in how they want them demilled, not to mention the barrel ban.
Also if a gun was confiscated in the US and the gun was cut up and sold by the local police dept a saw cut would have be legal.
https://www.apexgunparts.com/more/su...receivers.html
hope the link works for the crushed ak recievers apex gun parts sells. these are full auto recievers that are squashed, since its demilled to atf specs it's considered scrap metal today. we had a contest to see how fast a builder could turn it back into a functioning AK. Since its considered a piece of scrap metal, guys would 1st weld the third hole, heat the reciever and reform it into a function AK semi auto reciever.
If the 3rd hole wasn't welded first, then it would have been a full auto reciever after it was reformed. The once a machine gun applies if the recievers wasn't demilled. once it's demilled it's considered scrap metal.
The saw cut sten kit while being legal to own, if you have even a blank reciever tube in the correct diameter you can get charged with intent to build. but there you have a reciever blank with the correct diameter to fit a open bolt plus the parts to build.
like I was saying. check around with actual builders before parting the kit out. you'll probably get more money for your friend. jim