Welcome to the scrolling world.
As far as a machine is concerned buy the best you can afford. I have an Excalibur 21 and love it.
I use a Dewalt at the club and it is okay too.
Join as many forums as you can and just browse too see what you like to do best. There are lots of variety in the projects you can tackle from Intarsia, fretwork, compound cuts, toys, puzzles, portraits etc.
There a number of videos to teach the basics but you can really gets some good ideas. Check out Steve Good and Shelia Landy's blog.
Good luck
Don