I have an editform that I need to get to be just the form without all the pieces from the master page.  Every time I try to detach the master I get error and then ultimately a correlation error.

Is there an easier way to remove a master page or point to a

Try the following, open your editform in SharePoint designer.

in the page declaration, i.e. <%@ Page ... %>

Add a link to a custom, very minimal master page, such as:

MasterPageFile="/_catalogs/masterpage/custom-minimal.master"