OK
Got the camera out this morning, and took a few photos. The dome was built with a mortar of sand, cement, lime and fireclay. I've used a pre-bagged sand cement mix (for sheer laziness...
) and its worked pretty good. I've got plenty of fireclay left over, so any UK builders give me a shout !! The dome has been 'freeform', as the mortar has been pretty good at holding the brick, even on pretty steep inclines. In some cases, I've held the brick up from below with another brick or piece of wood, just until the mortar has grabbed hold.
I've not done much today, just fitted the thermocouple controller and wired it up, and painted the base with a couple of coats of masonry paint.
There is a 50w bulb in at the moment providing some warmth to start the drying out - I'll leave it this week and then it will be at least early next before I can do much more. Hopefully, that will give it plenty of time to harden off before I start firing with avengance !!
The last photo shows what happens when you try and mix fireclay based cement with a mud mixer and an SDS drill... Yes, I've wrapped the steel blades round the shaft !! That stuff is sticky !!
Pete