The insides of Dudley's volcano were made of tamped fiberfrax that were chopped up in a food processor along with colodial silica for a binder, these wet fibers were packed on top of a form to shape the cone (almost like applying paper mache).
After initial burnout of the binder, the entire cone, inside and out was coated with a very heavy paste made from colloidal silica and finely milled zircon power. This created a very ridged surface that completely binds up the frax, and is a refractory surface which is flame friendly.
He fired the original one with wood, dung, grasses, etc. just like the ancient ones. The final version used a simple burner head on a venturi, and was fired with propane for fuel. Much hotter than using a plumbing torch... but much more to build. We experimented by making small cones by the same technique, and then suspending them over a very large bunsen burner.
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Playing with Fire!
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