Homebrew PCBs

I have a question to the other members in the group. 

I use alot of SMD parts, many of which have heat slugs on the bottom of 
the parts for thermal dissapation. At work, when I have a PCB made up 
by a board house, we lay these out with a large solderable pad under 
the part, then connect the top side of the PCB to the bottom side with 
numerous feed thru holes. When the part is soldered to the board this 
provides a themal path to the copper on the botom of the board. With my 
home made TT, or photo boards I can not make plated thru holes to 
provide this thermal path, but I still need to get the heat out some 
how.

I have thought of drilling many feed thru's under the part and feeding 
a thick copper wire from one side to the other, then on the compnent 
side cut or grind the surface flat so the component can still be 
soldered down.

Has any one else had to use similar parts? How have you managed to get 
the heat out of these parts? Any other suggestions?