I wouldn't tear apart a complete, rare firearm to get materials for one of my projects, but if the part is already an orphan, it's fair game. The farther from its other parts, the more fair the game!

In the case of my 639 Franken-Smith no original 639 parts were harmed in the course of the build and I could even return it to its original configuration in about 15 minutes... all of the cutting and changing is happening on the orphan 439 slide, which doesn't seem all that rare. OTOH, I don't know anything about the history of that 639/3906 hybrid... in fact it looks blued on my screen... could it be a 436/3904 hybrid instead?

Froggie

Froggie