Hey, Dave. I am surprised that you had trouble keeping the pellets lit. I have exactly the opposite issue where I have trouble keeping sawdust lit, whereas the pellets stay lit very well.
What kind of ignition source are you using? At first, I tried using a mini-torch, but after trying and failing many times, I switched over to a propane torch and have had much better luck when lighting with this. I am not sure I have tried the sawdust again since getting the propane torch, though. So, I may have to try this again.
The benefits of the dust over the pellets is that they will generate a lot less heat. I have had some issues with the pellets generating too much heat even when smoking cheese with relatively cold ambient temperatures.
I think I may need to try some dust again with my propane torch and see how that goes. Assuming that it does, I think I would use dust for cheese and pellets for cold smoking bacon.
It is definitely getting close to cheese smoking time again.