Today, after work, I went to a different store and did find the smoking pellets I'd been looking for.
Since I now had the right equipment for the job I unwaxed one of my farmhouse cheddar wedges and gave this another go.
Anticipating that the smoke would be much greater with the pellets (as opposed to the chips) I decided to do this one outdoors on my gas grill.
Well guys, I can't begin to tell you how great the results were.
There was a LOT of smoke coming out of this little tin can. I kept turning the cheese wedge every 10 minutes or so, to keep the smoke from totally saturatin the part of the cheese that was on the bottom.
I'd guess that the cheese itself never got above 40 degrees F,since we are in the low 20's today but the smoke flavor has certainly covered every single part of the wedge.
In the confined space of the enameled pot the temps got too high, but in my gas grill, outdoors the interior was very cool and perfect for smoking a cheese.
I'll have to give this one a few days rest before I try it again. I used hickory which produced a VERY strong smoke flavor on this cheese. I think the next time I'll try to Adler pellets and see if perhaps they are a bit more mellow.
If not, I'lll simply keep adjusting the time in the "smokehouse" until I find something that I am happy with.
Hope this helps someone that wants to try smoking their cheese.
Thanks to Chilipepper for finding the link to such a simple process. It really does work.
Dave