I've been working on an A3987 stepper driver board, and have figured a way to make copper riveted Vias. This allows for very good thermal transfer to the bottom side of the board.
Rivets are made using a special cutter (inexpensive, available at Amazon) with a DIY spacer inserted into it so you can produce consistent sized rivets, with square cut ends.
I describe this at paulwanamaker.wordpress.com I will be adding a couple more pictures.
I also have an article about making perfect PCBs using the Toner Transfer Method.
Enjoy!