What essentials am I going to need?

[vincemaxwell]

You’ll need these or something like them because no material stays perfectly flat forever:

Honeycomb bed holdown pins

the best laser results are achieved with flat (non warping materials) in order to maintain consistent focus. Also, when cutting light materials like paper, the exhaust turbulence can kick up the material and ruin your job or at worst… catch fire. (speaking of which, I hope you all keep a small fire extinguisher in easy reach, near your machine - safety FIRST) I hope you find these useful. I used to 3d print them for my other laser cutter but occasionally , they would see the wrath of the laser …

Become familiar with this data for your project’s cutting/engraving/etc settings.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sWOebDU94HwezYPbHa3YdtXjpLbEl_vEPvCb1dSByL4/edit#gid=582951492

Also, pick up a collection of any material you can afford (cardboard, paper, veg leather, etc) and do some experiments just to see what it can do. Don’t plan to far with these experiments because you don’t want to get bogged down with the details. Have fun and just crank out a few things to see what the results are like. Engrave a picture, cut out a box, make a popup card, etc.
There are a lot of examples in the forums here.