A transmission is provided for a machine that manufactures a workpiece, later to serve as an electrode, by means of a form grinding tool. The tool has a similar spatial shape to that of the workpiece. The drive generates between the tool and the workpiece an orbital motion with changeable eccentricity and which orbital motion is necessary for a grinding or abrading process. A device, which can be structured as a transmission, an electrical control circuit, or as displaceable idling rollers, alters the eccentricity and is in constant operative connection with the driving side and power take-off side of the transmission. In this way there is obtained a constant setting or a cyclical adjustment of the eccentricity throughout the orbital movement. Furthermore, the orbital movement can describe non-circular patterns so that Lissajou patterns can be generated.