I am planning to start hanging wall cabinets using a rail on the wall and hanging brackets inside cabinets. My cabinets have 1/2" thick melamine backs that are tongue and grooved in a 1/4" deep x 1/2" wide groove on all four sides. There is also a 1/4" clearance between the back and the final edge of the cabinet. There are no nailers. I can increase this clearance to about 1/2" if need be.

Details are in the attached drawings.

Since I've never used this system before, I would appreciate it if someone could guide me on which hardware would work best with these given specifications. I don't have CNC, so minimal added machining would be desirable, e.g. a simple round hole in the back is preferable to some odd-shaped slots.

I'm also considering using rails on both the walls and cabinets since I don't expect that much need for adjustments if the wall rails are installed correctly (level and straight).

What do you all think?

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"French Cleat" Works great for us. Requires a 3/4" inset for the 1/4" back panel instead of your 1/4".
We build our uppers at 13" deep. 13"-1/4"-3/4" leaves us with a 12" interior depth. We also run a pocket holed 3/4"X3" nailer across the bottom so we can screw through the cabinet and secure it to the wall, cover the screw with a sticky dot.
Chris

Suspension rail we call and a bracket that attaches to the side of the box.
its made of steel and the system works like a french cleat except this bracket has two way adjustment and the members are made of steel.
You need to machine u shape notch for the rail.
Way easier than any other system and flexible.
Good luck.

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Oggie, what is the reason you would like to switch to a rail and bracket system?

We install a lot of Italian kitchens(800/year) and specifically ask the manufacturers to use the nailer instead of the rail and brackets. Our installers prefer the nailer. I also think the brackets Yavuz uses scream Ikea and have no place in a custom kitchen. Others are hidden, but more likely to strip when adjusting if you're not familiar with them.

Chris, does your CNC cut out an opening on the gables for the wall portion of the French cleat?

Bozzy, i still use the nailer system but not all the house's are wood frame construction. When you are dealing with a concrete wall ,nailers basically become a pain and sometimes hard to deal.This "Ikea" type hangers are 32 mm euro cabinetry standard almost every European country.
There is nothing wrong using what makes the job easier and safe as long as the customers does not specially ask and i did not see any of them ask how they hang or install yet :)

Bozzy,

The reason is to make installation easier and faster.
We make frameless cabinets with 3mm reveals and any imperfections in installation reflects dramatically in fronts alignments problems. I'm trying to outsource installation and gain more time to work in the shop on cabinets fabrication.

Here in Florida, walls are neither straight nor plumb, corners are not 90°.
Installers are mostly used to lightweight (compared to ours 3/4" melamine boxes), face frame cabinets with big gaps between fronts, i.e. no one notices 3mm difference between gap width at the bottom of a door vs at the top in those cabinets, but it makes all the difference with frameless ones.
Installers are almost nailing those cabinets to the wall; they are enough flimsy and with gaps between cases that they can follow the curvature of the walls without any additional considerations.
It's not that straightforward with frameless.
When I have a run of 3-4-5 or more wall cabinets, rarely can I definitely fix any of them to the wall before I screw all of them to each other (i.e. into one big cabinet), support them in a way that they don't distort each other (think of a 36Wx33H wall cabinet attached to the 30Wx15H) and then fill the gaps with shims along the concave or convex wall, and only then start screwing them to the walls for good, making sure screws do not pull cabinets out of square.
This requires a lot of clamps and supports for cabinets from underneath. Although it's not a rocket science, it's very hard to find installers willing to put that much effort.
So, I'm thinking it should be easier to first install the rail straight using few shims and after that I imagine it's just hanging the cabinets one after another, screwing them to each other and then to the wall.

We are not that much concerned with inside look of cabinets. With more and more of those 'robotic hands' for lift-up cabinet doors, pantry pull-out racks, push-to-open gizmos, drawers-inside-drawers, and what not, simple classical looking cabinets begin to look out of place.

Yavuz, who is the manufacturer of those brackets on your picture?

Oggie, if you google "Peter Meier 875-Z1-24" you will find all the info you need.

We mostly work on new high rises with steel stud framing and flat stock steel as backing. The walls are typically ok and the space between uppers and lowers is consistent. This allows to install base cabinets first and use a shop built box (~20 tall x 14 deep x 48 wide)that sits on the base cabinets and that supports upper cabinets. It allows us to screw multiple upper cabinet boxes together before fastening them to the wall. Sometimes we use multiple support boxes for longer sections, but most of the time a single box will be enough. Another benefit is that you can slide the uppers side to side if needed.

I also have a friend who installs a lot of Ikea kitchens and absolutely loves their system.

I am a furniture builder but currently building and installing my kitchen cabinets. Did frameless with 3mm reveals as well using Festool Lr32 I used a french cleat runner at the back of the cabinets. To install on my wavy wall I just ran a string and shimmed each cleat to the string. I double checked alignment with a long level and cabinets were shimming at bottom. The came out perfectly square, level (front top and face)

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I used wall suspension fittings and rail for fifteen or so years. Their design is for a 1/4" back recessed 1/2" inboard, not sure a half inch back will work, don't think so. The one issue is when the cabinet run ends and there is nothing to screw the rail to. Molly or toggle bolt was the only option to the sheet rock. The other issue is when cabinets went to the ceiling, we made it work but the cabinets need to be raised over the rail and slid down onto it. Notching the cabinet ends and back was no big deal. I used a router mounted horizontally. The ends went in from one side with a flip stop. The backs went in from the other side using a flip stop, both cuts, same machine, no set up.

I have a contractor who likes five foot tall upper cabinets eighteen inches deep. Wasn't comfortable with hangers in that situation. I changed to a 3/4" back screwed from the sides and into the decks. Extremely tough and if the last stud is 12" from the end of the cabinet run it's no big deal. Eventually I changed everything to 3/4" backs, for me it's much easier and faster to install with standard studd framing. A concrete block wall, suspension fittings would be a better choice. I can install a whole kitchen, all cabinets fastened together (euro construction) uppers and lowers without putting any screws into the wall until everything is aligned and sitting in place. At that point I will screw the cabinets to the wall using tapered shims as needed to fit the out of plum and not straight walls.

I took best of both words.Fast hanging and adjustable with suspension rail and extra weight handling and safety from nailer. Nailer also ties the sides and bottom of the case.
1/4 or 1/8 inches there is nothing to do with back panel.other than making the case square and holding all 4 sides and nailer.
All my back panels are 1/4 inches and 5/8 inches case materials.

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Brian,
It's a good system, used a few times in the past. But now, our cabinets have no nailers. We got rid of them in order to simplify and speed up the fabrication of the cabinets. Now the fabrication flows so smoothly and effortlessly that I don't think we'll ever go back to nailers for any reason.

Yavuz,
I never used 5/8" melamine for the boxes, but I understand that it may help preventing deck from sagging in wider cabinets. We use 3/4" for cases and the 1/2" back is grooved into the deck with a little bit of melamine glue and some 3/4" long staples shot from the back at 45 degrees, so we never saw any sag, hence no need for nailer there.
Are you cutting your parts manually or on a CNC?

Oggie,
i do not trust just the suspension system by it self.
Suspension system rail and brackets are widely use on European cabinetry.
They have concrete wall over there and system works safe and flawlessly.
Here in the States our homes are wood or metal frame over drywall.We are living in California "earthquake" region.
i prefer at lest 4 screws on the upper rail for each cabinet.You have no chance on the frame walls.just 2 .For that reason
I decided extra horizontal member gives tremendous amount of safety and load handling.It ties all three sides and hold it self to the back with the glue.I know it looks like is useless but trust me extra simple detail saves you from future nightmares.
Also there is no nails or anything on my cases.Just glue and mechanical fasteners .
I do not need extra weight on my cabinets.3/4 inches case and 1/2" backing is way over kill for anything but 5/8" and 1/4 " backing is the sweet spot and perfect for me.
I use slider.Cnc is next :)