it’s ridiculously cool

Hobby or professional

Hobbyist with a CNC. The stuff I still have to make by hand can look a bit rough. 😅

Do you have a recommendation for a good first luthier project?

For acoustics definitely something modern, where you can get a lot of components like forms (solera, outer form, radius dish), inlays, fretboard, tuners ect. ready-made. Or even a kit, like iamericandre wrote (you'd still need the forms, though). Or maybe a ukulele, because of the much lower material costs.

Not OP but I started with kits. Some you’ll have to do more work than others but it’s a great way to get going

The shop I bought the radius dish from had everything in millimeters. So I assume it's trade standard in Europe? Also, in engineering you have everything in millimeters, no matter how big (outside the US).