Quick fuel air bleeds

I've been dealing with the same carb and curb idle adjustments at 1.5 turns out A/F(running rich). I started changing air bleeds both primary and secondary with little success. I'm having better luck going to smaller IFR's idle fuel restrictions on the metering block. I went from whatever the stock restrictions where down to .029 then down to .025 and i may end up with .020 to get it just right. I want to achieve about 1.5 turns on A/f adjustment currently I'm at 3/4 out from seated position. Also, if you haven't adjust your transfer slot to .020 you may need to do that first. I'm doing this by a 4 step process of tuning. Not necessarily in order of best vacuum reading, timing, a/f ratio, and seat of the pants.
What are you running for engine combo? Carbs worked good since new, out of the box it was 10x better then the edelbrock it replaced. Jetting seems real close. So far I've replaced the stock power valve with a 8.5. Made a huge difference. But I'm pulling 18" vacuum at 600 rpm. T slots are almost perfectly square. Just getting tired of the rich idle.