Hi,

In the UK I use a 'blue tape' which is a thin plastic tape made by
Tessa. This is much easier to remove than gummed tape and leaves
absolutely no residue what so ever. It doesn't have the same level of
adhesion though, so if you are making up a large and complicated lay
on I would probably stick (ho ho) to gummed.

When removing gummed tape I normally leave it until it absolutely dry
and then sand it off using a sander with good dust extraction, in my
case a Festool 150mm random orbit sander hooked up to a vacuum
cleaner. The danger with removing the tape wet is that the gum gets
pushed down onto the grain and then you will never get it out.

Cheers

Darren