Doing "PCB"s by hand, what is best material to use?

[Red Squirrel]

I put PCB in quotes because if it's by hand,it's not really printed any more.   Hope this is the right place to ask this question.

I'm looking at redoing my environmental control system as a single board solution but I just want to drill my own holes and run wires and do it all manually, as it's just a 1 board deal so not worth getting the equipment/products to do a real PCB or to get one done professionally.  Eventually I'd like to,  but for now no.   My current solution is a DIN rail on my server rack as cross connect and the arduino and relay boards sitting in a little plastic box on a shelf below it.  Not easy to work on.

What is a good and easy to obtain material I can use to make a PCB from scratch?  I was thinking thin plywood but not sure if I want to use something combustible... just in case. (this is all going to be low voltage stuff... it might see 24vac for stuff like the furnace thermostat).  I'm also in Canada, so don't have access to as many of the fancy places the US has.  I'm thinking something I can just get at the hardware store that is easy to drill, non conductive, and fairly heat resistant when using the solder.

I looked into perfboards, but issue with those is the holes don't always work for everything, such as relays.  The centre pin of a relay does not match up.   It's also hard to find big ones.

Open to suggestions.

Also, is there any places in Canada that will do a single PCB for a fair price?  I'm still open to actually learning KIcad or other software and doing a real PCB, but I just don't think it will be cheap to do just one.  I may potentially make this a project that I release to the public though so it would still be neat to go through the process. To keep things simple and cheap I'd probably go with through hole stuff and solder it by hand at first so I'd need literally just the pcb with holes and traces and that's it.

[Red Squirrel]

Well I found some relays with proper 2.54 pitch, guess I just have to look more carefully to find components with that pich.

http://www.digikey.ca/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&itemSeq=162234541&uq=635531628079150189&CSRT=14056167459721105933

If I can get all components with the proper pin pitch then perfboards may be the way to go after all.

Found this one for 32 bucks which is not too bad:
http://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/45P80-1/V1034-ND/38915

So maybe I'll end up sticking to perfboard for this project.  I just need to find myself some KIcad tutorials and start learning!

[Falcon69]

For general PCB prototyping using Perf Boards, I just buy them off eBay. This is just generic stuff with no risk of getting crappy fake stuff like with IC's.  They are a fraction of the cost of the same item bought off Digikey or other place.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Pcs-9cm-x-15cm-Double-Sided-Protoboard-Glass-Fiber-PCB-Board-/321467415249?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ad8f37ad1

You can get lots of different sizes.

Most through hole products come in a 2.54mm (0.1inch) pin pitch.

Just make sure you pay attention, some items, like screw terminals, come in 5mm pitch instead of the 5.08 (2.54x2) pin pitch. Those are fine if you use one, they still fit, but when you use several of them snapped together, you'll have trouble fitting them on your board.  You'll have to clip the little connector things off so it fits as it should into the 2.54mm pin pitch.  Just an FYI, pay attention.