. Then I need to remove the gooey
: mess down to clean wood. Any thoughts on how to remove the mess?
: It instantly clogs up sandpaper. Any solvents that I might try?

I'm not at all sure how well this would work, but we use Fast Orange hand cleaner to get uncured epoxy off tools - works very well for that purpose. Maybe used with steel wool or ScotchBrite pads to dissolve and scrub???...??? Can't see that it could do much damage - just be sure to thoroughly wash the treated area before recoating, as you'd do with any solvent...