Hey Bob, the density of your fuel has a lot to do with keeping it smoldering. I used to use pine straw in my smoker until I discovered chipped hardwood.
I have plenty of pine needles in my yard and it seemed a natural solution, but I also had a hard time keeping it lit and ran into the same problem you have with the breather plate.. bending because I had to compress the pine needles to get the required density. I also found the smoke to be extremely irritating, but I eventually learned to keep the thing lit.
After I used a cheap HF chipper/shredder to clear up some prunings from an apple tree, I decided to try the chips in the smoker. I lit some paper with some chips on it and once the flame burned out I used the bellows a few times, added another handful of chips, bellows, more chips, bellows until the can is full. I found I didn't have to compress the fuel because it was already a more dense mass of chips than pine straw, and the smoke from fruitwood is much, much more pleasant. A can of hardwood will smolder for hours and develops thick clouds of sweet smoke.
In my experience;
Pine straw, fluffy. Hard to keep lit unless compressed. Acrid smoke.
Wood chips, denser. Easier to light and keep lit. Pleasant smoke. My go-to.
Denim, dense, easy to light and keep lit. unpleasant smoke.
Burlap. dense when folded tight, lights easy, smolders well. unpleasant smoke.
I quit tobacco a long time ago, but the old European beeks frequently used it.
