Jury Rigging

Jury Rigging is a perk in Fallout: New Vegas.

Effect
With this perk, you can repair items based on category instead of type. For example, you can repair the rare Ranger Sequoia with the common .357 magnum revolver. The same goes for armor and clothing.

There are 13 categories of weapons that the perk will enable repairing within: unarmed, one-handed melee, two-handed melee, energy pistols, energy rifles (laser), energy rifles (other), energy weapons (heavy), one-handed guns, two-handed automatic guns, bolt/lever-action guns, miniguns, grenade launchers and missile launchers. Likewise, clothing can be used to repair each other within their category (light, medium, heavy). Finally, almost all headgear can be repaired with any other headgear.

Weapons are categorized, to some extent, by the method in which they are fired. For example, the bolt-action anti-materiel rifle cannot be repaired by a sniper rifle, because the sniper rifle is a semi-automatic firearm, but can be repaired by the hunting rifle as it is also a bolt-action weapon. Some discrepancies arise with some other weapons, though. The 12.7mm SMG is categorized as a two-handed gun, and therefore can not be repaired by the 9mm and 10mm SMGs, since they are one-handed guns. A mostly complete list of all weapons that fall into specific categories follows.

A simple way to tell what weapons can repair each other is to look at the way that the player holds the weapon, in addition to the general type of the weapon (Guns, Energy, Explosives, etc.). For example, since the player holds the plasma rifle in the same way that they hold the laser RCW, Jury Rigging lets you repair them with each other, even though one is laser and one is plasma. However, since the laser rifle is held differently (more like a bolt/lever action gun), you cannot use it to repair the laser RCW, nor vice versa.

This perk is useful in that it not only reduces the need to effect repairs by using weapon repair kits or non-player characters, but it also allows the player to reliably repair their weapons with similar, much cheaper ones from fallen foes after or during combat without having to seek out an exact match. Characters who use low-durability weapons, picked the Built to Destroy trait, or find themselves using surplus or over/max-charged ammunition often will reap great benefits from the perk. It can also be a big help to those who favor certain unique weapons like the YCS/186 or Oh, Baby!, whose normal repair counterparts are rare or expensive, or weapons that do not have a standard repair counterpart. This goes for armor, as well, meaning that even Remnants power armor can be maintained on the cheap with a set of metal armor.

It is worth noting that Jury Rigging also allows you to repair common items with rare or powerful items, potentially causing you to lose these items accidentally.

Repair categories
Each weapon and armor falls under a specific category in which all weapons/armors repair each other.
 * ¹ denotes the least expensive. (DLC items excluded)
 * ² denotes the most expensive item that may be readily purchased or found in a class. (DLC items excluded)
 * ³ denotes unique weapon with no common variant available.
 * Italics denote DLC content.
 * Note: In cases where multiple items could be listed, the most commonly occurring item is used.

Weapons
Weapons are listed by their base variants, except in cases when it is unique. Make sure if you add something it is listed alphabetically.

Two-handed melee
The throwing knife spear can be used to repair the knife spear, but not other two-handed melee weapons.

The proton throwing axe can be used to repair the proton axe, but not other two-handed melee weapons.

Energy rifles (other)
Note: The laser rifle can also be used to repair the recharger rifle.

Unaffected weapons
These weapons each are in their own category and can only be repaired by copies of themselves, their unique variants and using weapon repair kits.

These weapons are: arc welder, grenade machinegun, holorifle, shoulder mounted machine gun, Tesla cannon, and binoculars.

Heavy armor
All heavy armors. Metal armor¹, T-51b power armor², etc.

Medium armor
All medium armors. Recon Armor, Combat armor, Combat armor, reinforced², Combat armor, reinforced mark 2², Desert Ranger combat armor, NCR Ranger combat armor, NCR Bandoleer/Face Wrap/Mantle/Military Police/Trooper armor¹, Riot gear.

Light armor
All light armors. Wasteland outfit¹, Space suit, etc. Pre-War clothing, Leather armor, reinforced², Vault 34 security armor, Sierra Madre armor, Light armor can also be repaired with clothes (like pre-War businesswear or wasteland doctor fatigues) and vice versa.

Light headgear
All head items in the base game, Dead Money, Honest Hearts and Old World Blues can repair one another due to all items being classified as "light".

Glasses¹, pre-War hats, T-51b power helmet², etc.

Heavy headgear
The riot gear helmet and its variants are the only headgear classified as 'Heavy' so far. Since they can already repair one another freely, Jury Rigging only has the effect to allow them to be repaired by heavy armor. The other helmets and masks from Lonesome Road are classified as 'Light' and can be Jury Rigged with any other headgear.