318 +.030 Dieseling

I just got off the phone with Accel. My distributor has 22* of mechanical advance from the OEM.
If I am at 18* initial as stated above and max is at 36* ish, does that mean that I want to limit the vac advance to 18*? or let the vac advance do all that it can and adjust the mechanical to limit at 36*?

Vacuum goes beyond your initial and mechanical advance.

So it's Initial + Mechanical = Total then add Vacuum.