I have used a sealing iron. It has a teflon coating so the plastic does not stick to iron. It takes some experimenting to get the right temperature setting. But when you do, you press the wheel down against the hot iron till it squishes the desired amount.
Many hobby shops carry these for use applying the stick-on covering material on RC planes. I bought mine mail order from Tower Hobbies while I was still into RC, but found, with the right setting, that it was great for melting and softening styrene.